Chronicles of Aya
by AznTigress
Summary: While Sora is fighting Heartless, a curious traveler with a fetish for souveniers learns about her unknown destiny. For the socalled neophytes of Organization 13, what happened to their Heartless counterparts? Another Story, Another Side
1. The Enigmatic Thief Pt I

_Sora and his friends discover their things disappearing all over the place. What is going on? Is it the strange work of the Heartless, or is there another culprit at large?_

* * *

**The Enigmatic Thief – Part I**

"Where the heck did I put it? I could've sworn it was in my room last night. No one could've taken it, right?"

Sora was strolling along the streets of Traverse Town when he found Cloud looking more distraught than normal. Wondering what could be the matter, the teenage boy saunters over to his blonde-haired friend.

"What's wrong, Cloud?"

"I can't find my Buster Sword anywhere," replied the lone swordsman.

"What do you mean you can't find it?" asks Sora, puzzled. "Every time I see you, you always have that sword in your hand. I didn't think it could be separable from you."

"I put it down once in a while," countered Cloud, feeling rather annoyed by Sora's little joke.

"Well, where was the last time you saw it?" inquired the boy. "Maybe we can retrace your steps."

"I've been doing that all day," replied Cloud. "The very last time I had it with me was when I was training with Hercules at the Coliseum. I got dizzy because I forgot to eat breakfast that afternoon so I went to get something to eat. Everything else after that was a blur because I had collapsed from starvation. When I came to, my Buster Sword was nowhere to be found. The only other person who could even lift my sword was Hercules and he told me he hasn't seen it since I left."

"How weird," noted Sora. "Who else could possibly have the strength to lift your sword, let alone carry it without anyone else knowing? That thing weighs a ton."

The two of them look down at the ground and fell deep in thought.

"Counting grains of dirt?"

Cloud and Sora look up to see the always smiling face of a certain young ninja girl.

"Hi Yuffie," greeted the Keyblade Master. "We're trying to figure out where Cloud's Buster Sword had disappeared to."

"Someone took your sword?" Yuffie exclaims at the blonde-haired swordsman with a look of surprise on her face. "How?"

"How do you know someone took it?" wonders Sora curiously.

"If no one took the sword then you guys would've found it by now, wouldn't you?" retorts Yuffie.

"That _is_ true," agreed Cloud.

"Well, don't worry Cloud; you're not alone," assures Yuffie, standing akimbo. "My ninja stars have disappeared too."

"You lost something too?" exclaimed Sora with surprise.

"I didn't lose them, per se," reiterated Yuffie. "They just disappeared."

"So you both lost something," notes Sora. "I wonder if anyone else is losing stuff too."

As if on cue, Cid staggers by mumbling incoherently and angrily.

"Hi Cid!" Yuffie greets him cheerfully.

The middle-aged man turns to face the girl and opens his mouth as if to curse out, but when he spots Sora near her, he decides to keep his trap shut for the sake of the boy's innocent ears.

"How ya doin'?" he greets back, trying to keep his anger under control.

"Cid, did _you_ lose something too?" asks Sora.

"How'd you…?" began the blonde-haired man.

"Cloud and I are missing something of ours," Yuffie fills him in. "We think there could be a thief afoot."

"Thief, eh?" vociferated Cid, the frown on his face working into a full-blown scowl. "That would explain my missing inventory. I thought it was those stupid Moogles messing up with the item accounting. If I ever get my hands on that sucker I'd—"

"Missing inventory?" Sora cuts him off questioningly.

"Yeah," answered Cid. "I'm missing an entire package of elixirs. You know how hard those things are to come by? I had to—"

"So Cloud's missing his Buster Sword, Yuffie's missing her ninja stars, and now Cid's missing some elixirs," recounted Sora.

"Not just some; a whole two dozen of them," clarified the middle-aged man. "Well, I gotta get back to the shop. Who knows what those flying oinkers are doing without me there. If any of you guys find someone selling elixirs at a cheaper price than me, you tell me as soon as you can, got it?"

"Got it," assured Yuffie with a grin.

Nodding farewell to the three, Cid heads in the direction of his shop. Just as he disappears into the crowd, two familiar faces appear in his place. Sora immediately recognizes the gloomy-faced figures as soon as he spotted them.

"Goofy! Donald!"

Upon hearing his name, the dog captain looks up and smiles at the sight of his young friend.

"Hi Sora," he greets the boy half-heartedly.

"What's wrong?" asks Yuffie.

"My shield's gone missing," answers Goofy depressingly. "What's gonna happen if we ran into some Heartless? They'll be all over me without my shield."

"And I'm guessing you lost your hat?" the teenage girl turns to the white duck, who was obviously missing some headwear.

Donald merely quacks a reply of confirmation with his more than usual scowl.

"This is weird," vociferates Sora, scratching his head in utter confusion. "I'd understand if a thief would take something like Cloud's sword, Yuffie's ninja stars, or Cid's elixirs in order to get money or get stronger, but I don't see why anyone would bother stealing something as menial as a hat or a shield, no offense to you guys."

Both Goofy and Donald acknowledges Sora's intentions with simultaneous nods.

"That _is_ weird," agrees Yuffie, putting her hand to her chin.

"We should have a meeting with everyone and figure out what's going on," suggested Cloud.

"Great idea," agreed Sora. "We can make a note of everything that's missing and use that to find the thief."

"Allrighty then," exclaims Yuffie. "I'll spread the word and tell everyone to meet at the café in District 1."

With nods of agreement, the five of them dispersed into the surrounding crowds.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later at the café, Sora arrives to find Aerith, Cid, Yuffie, Cloud, Leon, Donald, Goofy, and Merlin lingering about the tables. Seeing that the last "guest" has arrived, Yuffie makes her way to the front of the café and yells everyone to attention.

"Okay people!" she cries out. "Now that everyone's here, we can begin the meeting."

Everyone either took a seat or stood leaning against the wall as the meeting was underway. Yuffie smiles and nods to Sora to take center stage. Feeling kind of nervous with everyone staring at him, Sora swallows his anxiety and summons as much courage as he could.

"H-hey everyone," he says nervously. "Ahem. Lately there's been a lot of stuff going missing around here. So… let's start by having everyone share what they've lost."

Aerith was the first to step up to the plate. Sora's eyes went wide with astonishment when he saw her, for she no longer had her hair tied up neatly. Instead, the soft brown locks were left hanging down her back and some fell over her shoulders so that they looked as if a jellyfish was perched upon her shoulders with its tentacles lying over her chest.

"I guess you guys can tell that my ribbon is gone," said Aerith with a meek smile.

Sora wasn't used to seeing Aerith with her hair down; she looked like an entirely different person. The same went for everyone who knew her.

"Ahem."

Leon was the next to speak up. "Gunblade."

Not surprised by his quick-to-the-point response, everyone made note of the item and went on to the last person.

"My wand," spoke Merlin. "If anyone finds it, please return it to me. I'm afraid of what could happen should it get into the wrong hands."

"My guess it's _already_ in the wrong hands," Cid mutters under his breath, still bitter about his missing elixirs.

"Okay then," declared Sora. "So far, what's missing are: Cloud's Buster Sword, Leon's Gunblade, Yuffie's ninja stars, Cid's elixirs, Merlin's wand, Goofy's shield, Donald's cap, and Aerith's ribbon."

"What about you, Sora?" spoke up Aerith. "Don't _you_ have anything missing?"

"Well, the only thing of real importance to me is my keychains and they're all right here," replied the boy, patting his pocket to hear the keychains jingle. Suddenly, he stops and his eyes open with along with his mouth in utter surprise. The jingling he heard didn't sound like the jingle he normally hears and the feel of his pocket was different as well. Fearing the worst, Sora empties his pocket and counts up the keychains he had acquired on his traveling to different worlds. As suspected, some of his keychains were gone; five of them to be exact. But it wasn't just any five random keychains. Sora feels that this thief had done his homework.

"Sora?" exclaims Goofy with concern. "Are you allright?"

"You don't look too good," notes Yuffie. "You kind of look pale."

Still grasping the keychains in his hands, Sora fell to his knees, his eyes still wide with shock.

"Took some of your keychains, eh?" figured Cid. "This thief got to all of us after all."

"He didn't just take any keychains," uttered Sora ominously. "He took the strongest ones I've got. Metal Chocobo, Lionheart, Divine Rose, Oblivion, Ultima Weapon… they're all gone."

The atmosphere around the café suddenly shifted from that of irritation to moribund vehemence. It was not the power of the stolen keychains that scared them; they understood that the keyblades won't appear to someone other than the chosen Keyblade master. What really struck fear into their hearts was the possibility of a strong Heartless that Sora won't have the strength to defeat as he is now. If Sora is destroyed, who else could wield the keyblades?

"This has gotten too far," vociferates Leon. "We've got to find this thief."

"But where can we start looking?" inquires Cloud. "This thief took us all by surprise, even us. Whoever he is, he's good at what he does."

Suddenly, everyone turns to Yuffie whose eyes went wide with bewilderment at the action. "What are you guys looking at me for?"

"How does that saying go?" asks Cid. "I believe it goes 'it takes one to know one'."

"I don't know what you're talking about," responds Yuffie.

"C'mon Yuffie," said Leon. "Who better to catch a thief than a thief?"

"Hey, now I don't do that anymore," argued the teenage girl.

"Yuffie, please?" spoke up Aerith. "This is your one chance to be what you are meant to be and get rewarded for it."

"Well…" began the ninja. "When you put it _that_ way…"

"So, what do we do?" asks Merlin eagerly.

"Uh," uttered Yuffie as she thought of a plan. "First, we need something that this thief would want to steal."

"And what would that be?" wonders Sora, who finally snapped out of his shock.

"Well, judging from the missing items…," began the girl. "… I don't really know."

"That's a load of help," retorts Cid disappointedly.

"The items don't really have a connection, do they?" notes Aerith. "They all seem pretty random. Weapons, healing items, and clothing accessories…"

"What is it about the accessories?" wonders Sora.

"That cap is the only one I have," exclaims Donald, feeling irritated by his lack of head covering.

"And that ribbon is the only one I have too," adds Aerith.

Hearing this, Sora began thinking. He knew there was a connection among the items; his gut feeling told him so. He started recounting the stolen items. _Cloud's Buster Sword, Leon's Gunblade, Yuffie's ninja stars, Cid's elixirs, Merlin's wand, Goofy's shield, Donald's cap, Aerith's ribbon… and my keychains…_

Suddenly, Sora was struck hard by an epiphany. _Of course! It all makes sense!_

He gave a grin as he looks up at his surrounding friends who all look back at him curiously.

"I've figured it out!" the teenage boy declared confidently. "I know the connection!"

"Connection between what?" asks Goofy, cocking his head to the side.

"The missing items!" replied Sora. "Each item is unique to the person it was stolen from! No one else has them except you guys!"

"Of course!" agrees Merlin. "Why didn't we see it sooner? My wand is unique to me because no one else has a wand like it."

"The same goes for my ribbon!" exclaims Aerith.

"Our weapons too," added Cloud, indicating himself, Yuffie, and Leon.

"But what about my elixirs?" wonders Cid.

"I think the thief stole those to throw us off," suggests Sora. "He must've realized that each of the items he stole is unique to his victim so he must've stolen the elixirs not only as a means of provision but also so we can't get the connection."

"Good show, my boy!" praised Merlin. "How ever did you figure all that out?"

"An interesting question sort of popped up in my head," admitted the boy bashfully.

"What kind of question?" asks Yuffie.

Sora gives a sigh and looks down at the keychains in his hand. "What makes _you_ so special?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, er night, Sora, Goofy, Donald, and Yuffie stake out at the Fairy Godmother's house in the shadows of the cozy building. Sora recalls how he had told the kind woman about their plans as he sat with his friends.

"Fairy Godmother," declared the teenage boy. "We have come to believe your wand may be in danger."

As expected, the Keyblade master received a confused look from the magical lady. He explained to her the situation, after which the Fairy Godmother was more than happy to help, under the condition that no harm should come to her wand.

It's been about six hours since Sora got the okay from the woman and already the stakeout was turning into a real bore. The initial excitement had died down and some of them were getting quite sleepy.

"Wake me when something happens," quacks Donald as he lays his head on his hands.

"Same here," agrees Yuffie, trying hard to stifle a yawn.

"C'mon guys," urged Sora, stifling a yawn of his own. "This is our only chance to catch the thief."

"How do we even know if the thief will come after the wand?" argues Donald. "Heck, how do we know the thief is still in Traverse Town? For all we know, he could be miles away from here selling our stuff somewhere."

"Don't say that," chastises Sora. "The thief i will /i come, I'm sure of it."

"We'll just see," retorts the magical duck.

Another hour passed and Sora's eyelids were starting to feel very heavy. The others were already half-asleep, looking like a group of tired zombies as they sat on the floor. Just when the lips of Sora's eyelids met, something began stirring outside the house. Thinking it could be the thief, the boy quickly and quietly arouses his friends awake and all four of them focus in on the source of the noise. The noise stops and in moments Sora catches sight of a shadowy figure stalking across the room towards the location of the Fairy Godmother's wand. They waited until the thief was in a suitable position and then they pounced on the person. The thief hears their advances and easily dodges their attacks with a series of fluid, acrobatic movements. Without them knowing, the thief moved in a way that got the person closer and closer to the intended target, the wand. When the thief was close enough, the person snatches the item and makes its way out of the house. Sora and the others follow the thief outside where the person was leaping silently from rooftops to rooftops.

Thinking quickly, Sora remembers that Donald still had his wand and together the two of them cast Blizzaga on the thief. The thief manages to avoid the center of the spell's impact but unfortunately managed to get the person's legs caught in the spell. With frozen limbs, the thief fell to the ground unable to run any further. Thinking they have managed to catch the thief, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Yuffie all gasp in surprise as they watched the thief cast Fira on itself and melt the ice surrounding its legs.

"He can use spells?" exclaims Yuffie in astonishment.

The ice completely melted by the time Sora and the others caught up to the thief. As the thief continued running, the person let out a taunting laugh.

"Yuffie, this is no time to laugh," the boy yells at the girl.

"I wasn't laughing," responded the ninja.

Sora became confused as they chase the thief further into the district. _That laughter… It sounded like a girl. The thief's a girl?_

Just then, the Keyblade master saw the thief suddenly fly into the air. Goofy and Donald had confused looks on their faces as well as Yuffie and Sora, who had equally perplexed expressions.

"He can fly too!" the ninja cries out. "What's going on here?"

As they got closer, they soon came to realize that the thief was struggling in midair. They spot a tall figure beneath the person and discover Merlin with a book in his hand.

"Merlin?" exclaims Donald in surprise.

"I may not have my wand but that doesn't mean I can't still do spells," replies the old wizard.

"What are you doing here, Merlin?" asks Goofy.

"I heard a ruckus coming in this direction so I came out to see what was going on," explained Merlin. "Who would've thought I'd be the one to catch the thief?"

The five of them look up to find the thief still struggling in the air. It seems that Merlin casted a capture spell that held captives in midair. It didn't hurt them nor did it allow any chance for escape. It was an advanced spell that Donald had yet to be taught.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Yuffie, and Merlin all stood around in a circle before the old wizard let the thief down to the ground. Once on solid ground, the thief was eerily cool and calm as the person looked around at its captors. Sora couldn't believe his eyes. The thief _was_ a girl after all!

The thief was clad in a simple outfit consisting of shoes that resembled hiking-boots, a blue jean jacket, and a lighter-shaded blue jean pants. She wore fingerless gloves of a strange shade of black on each hand and sported an intimidating spear and a mysterious sword of some sort. Her short hair gave her the initial appearance of a boy, but a closer look reveals that she was indeed a girl; a teenage girl to be exact; probably around Yuffie's age.

"Who are you?" demanded Sora.

"Who wants to know?" responded the girl defiantly. She takes a closer look at the boy and smiles. "You're that Keyblade master, aren't you? Sora was the name, right?"

"How'd you know?" asks the boy.

"Word travels fast around these parts," answered the girl.

"Give us back the wand," commanded Yuffie strongly. "And the other items you stole too."

"What other items?" toyed the girl, acting clueless as to what the ninja was talking about.

"Don't lie; we know you took the Buster Sword, the Gunblade, and everything else that went missing," spoke up Sora.

"Hmm, and I was so sure nobody could make the connection," utters the girl with a smirk. "I guess I underestimated you people."

"Hand them over," commanded Donald.

"Well, if you haven't noticed, I don't carry those important items with me so I can't really do that," responds the girl.

"Where are they?" asks Goofy.

"If you really want to know," began the girl as she sneakily grabs hold of something in her back pocket. "You're going to have to fight it out of me!"

Before Sora and the others could make a move, the girl speedily takes out a summon Materia and thrusts the red orb into the air.

"Dark Gore!"

The night sky became a cloudy mixture of blood red and deep black. Sora and the others watch as a lake of shadows appears behind the girl and from the depths of its darkness came a decrepit and hideous claw. Another equally hideous claw joined the other and a grotesque head emerges soon after. The horrendous creature came crawling out of its lair and towered above the girl as it looks down at its intended victims. Sick-inducing drool drips out of its massive jaws that deemed too heavy for its weak face muscles to close. Its thick salivating tongue ended in four tips, creating a sort of third arm for the monster to pull its meal into its waiting mouth.

"Aww, gross!" shrieked Yuffie in disgust.

"Have fun with Goranus," banters the girl. "I'm sure you'll have a LOT of it with him."

With that said, she runs off, leaving her summoned beast to handle the five captors.

"Well, um, I'd _love_ to help, but this seems too much for me," chuckles Merlin. He disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving the remaining four fighters to take on the monster on their own.

"Well, guys," began Sora. "Merlin's left us, the thief got away, and Yuffie and I are without our strongest weapons. In addition to that, we're left with a nasty-looking monster that makes me think of my digestive system. Shall we fight?"

"Doesn't look like we have a choice," replies Goofy nervously.

"In that case," said Sora, summoning Oathkeeper into his hand. "Let's try not to die."


	2. The Enigmatic Thief Pt II

**The Enigmatic Thief – Part II**

Feeling quite out-of-place without the feeling his Buster Sword in his hand, Cloud hangs his head and saunters somberly through the streets, hoping the solitude would ease his anxiety. He suddenly hears running footsteps coming towards him and looks up in time to see someone crash right into him. The impact sent the both of them falling down to the ground with simultaneous _thuds_. The blonde swordsman shakes his head to shake off the dazing effect of the sudden contact and discovers the crasher stumble to her feet.

"Wow, that was something," she exclaims as she tries to maintain her balance like a drunken walker. Stars seem to spin around her head as she tries to steady herself on her feet.

Cloud gets up with much better recovery and helps the teenage girl stand straight. "Are you allright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," replies the girl.

"What were you running from?" asks the swordsman.

"Oh, my abusive father," lied the girl. "Well, I've gotta get going if I'm going to escape him."

Before she ran past him, Cloud quickly catches sight of the Fairy Godmother's wand in her hand and shoots out his arm to catch her by hers.

"Hey!" exclaims the girl in surprise.

One look in the young man's eyes and the girl immediately realizes that her cover was blown. As if things couldn't get any worse, another young man joins Cloud after exiting one of the houses nearby.

"What's going on here?" wonders Leon.

"I caught the thief," answers Cloud, showing the girl to his acquaintance.

"Is that so?" responds Leon. He looks at the girl with a most angry frown on his face. "Give me back my Gunblade."

"And my Buster Sword," adds the blonde swordsman with an equally upset frown.

"Man, you guys really can't live without your stuff, can you?" smirks the girl. With a quick slight of hand, she takes out another red orb and thrusts it into the air. "Depths of Luminescence!"

Instantly, the surrounding town was engulfed in complete and total darkness. Then the ground near them began quaking violently and something began pushing up the thick crust of the ground layer with great force. Out burst a mysterious source of light from underground illuminates the darkness, allowing them to see what they were up against. The long head of a blue serpentine creature and its two arms and claws emerges from the depths of the underground and roars a shriek at them with deafening force.

"What is that?" exclaims Cloud with stoic curiosity.

With his attention away from the girl, the teenager easily slips out of the swordsman's grip and stands before the creature to face the two young men. "This is my dear friend Ebbheart. I hope you'll find his presence most enjoyable. See ya!"

The girl runs off and the two young men stand apprehensively as the creature eyes them ferociously. Leon activates his Scan ability and the creature's information pops up in his head.

"A Non-elemental," he declares nonchalantly. "I don't usually deal with these types very much."

"Same here," adds Cloud. "So how should we take care of this?"

"How are your physical abilities?" responds Leon.

"I'm a swordsman, not a martial artist," replies Cloud, suddenly wishing his close friend Tifa was here with him.

"Then this… is going to take a while," groans the brown-haired gunman interlocking his fingers and stretching his arms out.

* * *

Cid was grumbling up a storm when Aerith came to his shop. She had tied her hair up using a thin scrunchie that Yuffie had found, making her appearance more recognizable. However, the young woman still did not feel like herself without her beloved ribbon. Cid notices her company and flicks an airborne Moogle to the side as he came up to her at the counter.

"What can I do fer ya, Aerith?" he greets gruffly.

"Have you seen Sora and the others around lately?" she asks him. "I can't seem to find any of them."

"Well, last I heard, Sora, Yuffie, Goofy, and Donald were all staking out Fairy Godmother's place," replies Cid, stroking his chin. "Leon's back home taking a nap and Cloud's just up and disappeared as usual."

"Sora's having a stakeout?" resounded Aerith. The young woman couldn't help but feel a little left out.

"Yeah," affirms Cid. "They were going to ask you but thought you wouldn't be able to handle the situation as energetically as them since you're older."

"Oh, is that so?" exclaims the young woman disappointedly. "Well, I'll just show them I still have energy despite my age."

She turns around and stomps out of the shop, striking uneasy fear in Cid as he watches her leave through the door. He races out after her, hoping to stop the poor girl before she does anything rash. When he emerged from the shop, he was surprised to see the brunette stop an unknown teenage girl in her tracks.

"What's going on here?" he asks Aerith.

"Looks like we've found our thief, Cid," replies the young woman with a smile.

"Man, I just keep running into trouble in this world," the girl mutters under her breath. "You guys are as unrelenting as that Riku guy."

"What did you say?" asks Aerith.

"You may have caught me like the others," began the teenage girl. "But I'll get away just as easily as I did from them."

Grabbing the last of her summon Materia, she thrusts it into the air and calls out her last beast. "Sky Light!"

Cid and Aerith watched in awe as the night Traverse Town sky suddenly illuminated into daylight, an unusual sight for that world. A white light twinkles in the daytime sky and from that light came a dragon creature diving down towards them. Just as it came close to the ground, the bluish-hue dragon flaps open its four massive wings and floats above the three with ferocity. Its white chest and claws seemed to glow with purity in the sunlight. The silvery strands of its hair flowed from its head like silk and flows divinely with each flap of its wings. What was most striking about the dragon was its talk, for it ended in a deadly-looking scythe-like claw like a scorpion.

The four-winged creature struck a chord in Cid. It reminded the middle-aged man of a familiar and similar beast he had seen before but wasn't able to recall its name. However, he quickly broke out of his train of thought upon seeing the girl take out an elixir to replenish her magic.

"Give me back those elixirs!" he demands angrily. "Or at least pay for them!"

"You're not in any position to give me orders," responds the girl. "You should be more concerned about what Kairo is going to do to you two."

Reenergized, the teenage girl speeds past Aerith and disappears into the distance.

"So that's what Traverse Town would look like if there was sunlight," exclaims the young woman in amazement.

"Aerith, this is no time to be gawking!" vociferates Cid as a Moogle hands him his trusty spear. "We've got a situation in our hands!"

The middle-aged man quickly pulls the young woman out of the way as the dragon lands on the street with a resounding _crash_. It roars so loudly that the ground beneath them quaked unsteadily. The two of them barely manages to avoid its scorpion-like tail without a scrape. Kairo glares at them with his emerald-green eyes and shoots its right arm at his weaker victim, Aerith. Seeing this, Cid dashes over to the weaponless brunette and slashes the claw away from her.

"C'mon Aerith!" he yells at the young woman. "Where's that energy I heard you rambling about?"

With renewed determination, Aerith gets up off the ground and finds a long pipe that probably broke off from a building when the dragon crash-landed. Using all of the strength she has, she uses her makeshift weapon to hit the dragon on the side of its head. Dazed, Kairo reorients himself and lunges at the girl only to feel a piercing pain as Cid ends his Boost Jump Limit Break right on top of the creature's head.

Roaring angrily in pain, the dragon shakes his head to and fro to dislodge the spear and its owner. Cid yells out as the dragon tosses its head about but maintains his hold on his spear and drives it deeper into the creature's skull. Meanwhile, Aerith had been batting away at the dragon on the ground and was starting to feel drained from the effort due to her lack of endurance.

"This isn't working Cid!" she calls out to the man. "What are we going to do?"

"Keep fightin'!" Cid yells back at her. "We'll figure out something!"

"I hope so," groans Aerith as she takes a swig of some hi-potions and ethers.

* * *

"Curaga!"

Sora heals himself for perhaps the tenth time since the battle started. The massive creature moves quite swiftly despite its size and unbalanced demeanor. The smell of its reeking breath stank of a mixture of sweaty feet, rotten fish, and a hint of dead skunk; the smell alone made Sora _want_ to be killed by the monster's dragging claws. Once in a while, the monster would let out a very loud groaning roar before charging headfirst into any one of them. Sometimes it would change its tactics and swipe around either its claws or its tail in order to achieve a longer range of attack, an ability that contradicted with the limbs appearing short. Goranus had proven to be tougher than the four of them initially thought.

Sora looks back at his friends to see how they were doing. Despite the weary looks on his friends' faces, they seem to be getting by allright. Goranus was weakening greatly through their combined efforts.

"Keep it up guys!" he encourages them, even though his arm felt as if it was on fire after using Strike Raid so many times. "This monster's almost done for!"

"That's a relief!" responds Yuffie tiredly, catching her ninja star. "I think my arm is about to fall off!"

Goofy had to make due with his sword, which he detested using. He'd been trying to prevent seeing any horrible injuries by merely poking the bladed weapon at the creature, barely causing any damage at all. Meanwhile, Donald had been using his spells to damage the beast further. He was constantly annoyed at the dog captain's reluctance to use the sword to its full purpose and repeatedly squawks at the character to use it properly.

Drinking his last elixir, Sora looks at Goofy and Donald and gave them a shivering look. Acknowledging his plan, the two of them prepare themselves for the final strike.

"Blizzaga!"

A crystal of icy spikes stuck out of the monster's body and it roars in pain. The massive monster finally submits and falls to the ground with a mighty thud. The four fatigued fighters watch as the summoned creature fades away, leaving a deep impression in the ground where it landed. Relieved that the fight was over Sora, Yuffie, Goofy, and Donald all fell down exhausted.

"I don't think I've ever used up so much energy in my life," gasps Yuffie.

Sora dismisses his keyblade, but the burning sensation in his arm remained. He could hear a battle going on in the distance and figures the thief must've summoned another one of her monsters on someone else. "We… we've got to… got to go find… go find the… thief."

"Let us rest first!" quacks Donald. "That monster took a lot out of us!"

Ignoring the exhaustive strain on his body, Sora struggles to his feet and began stumbling in the direction of the ongoing battle. The others groan at the boy's determination and force themselves off the ground to follow him.

* * *

Cloud lands on his feet as Leon leaps up to deliver another punch to Ebbheart's face. The serpentine monster roars in irritation and reaches out one of its arms to slash at the lone gunman. Leon manages to avoid the attack and spins around to kick the monster right between the eyes.

"Where'd you learn moves like those?" wonders Cloud as the brown-haired young man lands beside him.

"You don't hang around a ninja and learn nothing," replies Leon.

"Hmm, maybe I should've paid more attention to Tifa when she fights," the blonde swordsman utters to himself.

Ebbheart seems to be weakening from the attacks but not significantly; they had their work cut out for them and already the two of them were feeling rather annoyed at the tediousness of the battle.

"What I wouldn't give to have my Gunblade back," Leon mutters under his breath as he delivers another punch to the summoned creature.

Just then, Ebbheart opens its beak-like mouth and began collecting blue energy into it. Cloud and Leon groan as they sensed an oncoming powerful attack. Sure enough, the serpentine creature blasts out a huge beam of light that causes significant damage on the two young men. As Leon and Cloud slowly got up to their feet, Ebbheart began powering up for a second round of its Depths of Luminance attack. Cloud knew if they took another hit from the overwhelmingly damaging attack that could be the end of them. Desperate for some much-needed help, Cloud clenches his hands into fists and groans at the seemingly hopelessness of the situation. Suddenly, a thought came to his mind and he spoke out a word that was both unfamiliar yet eerily familiar to him.

"Ultima."

A thick green mist began forming out of thin air and engulfs the serpentine monster in its wake. Fully submerged in the mist, Ebbheart let out a painful shriek as the spell works its magic. In moments, the monster fades away and Ultima dissipates into the air. Both young men witnessed the entire event with a combination of awe and confusion.

"What just happened here?" Leon was the first to speak.

"I don't know," responds Cloud. He feels something spherical in his right hand and looks down to see a strange green orb in his grasp. Then as suddenly as it appeared, the orb sublimates into the air, leaving his hand as empty as it was before. "Ma… teri… a…" It all seemed so familiar to him yet he didn't recall experiencing anything like it before.

Leon and Cloud spot Sora and the others come less than a couple of minutes later. They all seemed as exhausted as the two young men, who began walking towards them to meet up.

"How'd… you guys… destroy… that… snakey thing?" asks Yuffie as she gasps between breaths.

"We didn't destroy it," answers Leon. "Or, I don't think we destroyed it."

Unfortunately their friendly reunion didn't last long, for a strong shockwave rippled through the ground. They all turn their heads in the direction of Cid's shop where they could clearly see a four-winged blue dragon on the rampage over there. A sinking feeling developed as they race towards the monster.

* * *

"Gyaahhh!"

Cid falls hard to the ground for the fifth time and groans as aches dotted his middle-age body.

"Are you allright?" asks Aerith. She had been busy casting Pulse of Life and Fury Brand on the man, taking hits in order to reach her limit to do so.

"I'll live," replies the blonde man as he got up. He had used Highwind twice on the monster and it still wasn't showing any signs of slowing down. He realized during the battle that his dragon-labeled Limit Breaks were doing more to heal the creature than damage it so he had resorted to using his most damaging one. But even that didn't seem to have any effect on it. "Is there _anything_ that can kill this thing?"

As if to answer his question, Sora, Yuffie, Goofy, Donald, Cloud, and Leon all arrive in time to see the dragon spread its huge four wings and leap high into the air. The Keyblade master looks up in astonishment at the size of the monster. It was much bigger than Goranus and Ebbheart and apparently much stronger than them as well. With the beast high up in the air, the others join up with Cid and Aerith. All eight of them were at their limits and unsure if they could even take down this final summon at their current states.

"This sucker's stubborn," warns Cid. "I've been using my strongest attacks on him and they didn't do anything but tickle the bat."

"If only we had our strongest weapons," Yuffie reminds some of them of their overall dependence on their weapons.

"It looks like there's only one thing to do," spoke up Aerith, walking past the group. High above them, Kairo began powering up its strongest attack. "There's one technique I know of but I need to reach my limit in order to use it."

"Now don't you go getting yourself killed now," began Cid. "You young people need to appreciate life more. I'm sure there's a better plan to destroying this monster."

"Aerith," exclaims Cloud quietly. A strange feeling of déjà vu began to overwhelm him as he thought about the young brunette's safety. _What's this emotion I'm feeling? Why do I feel so strange about Aerith dying? I don't have any feelings for her._

"Aerith, don't."

Cloud thought his thoughts had voiced themselves through his mouth but when he looks up, he realizes that it was Sora who had spoken those words.

"Please Aerith," begged Sora. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"This is the only way," reiterated Aerith. She gives him an assuring smile. "Don't worry; I'll be allright."

Suddenly, Kairo unleashes a bright beam of light downwards towards his intended targets. Seeing her chance, Aerith dashes off towards the center of the attack just as the beam made contact with the ground, spreading bright white light everywhere and blinding the group.

"AERITH!!!"

Everyone cried out as they watched the courageous young woman take the stronger part of the attack. They too were damaged greatly by the dragon's attack but they were more concerned for the brunette's well-being than their own. When the bright light subsided, they spotted Aerith in a kneeling position seemingly praying. It was then they realized that she had reached her limit.

"Great Gospel," she whispers weakly.

In the sky above her, three silvery angels descend and answer her prayers. A bright, warm light shines down on the group, healing them completely and granting them temporary immunity. Smiling at the success of her plan, Aerith slumps down to the ground, her brown hair flowing down with her. With literally renewed strength, Cloud dashes over to her and carries her gently back to the others quickly.

"Is she…?" began Yuffie worriedly.

"She's fine," confirms Cloud. He sets the now sleeping young woman down in a comfortable position and turns to the others. "Let's not let her efforts go to waste."

With nods of agreement from the others, the remaining seven set out against the dragon summon. With a roar, Kairo swoops down and floats just out of the group's physical reach as if to taunt them. Angrily, Sora summons Oathkeeper and races towards the dragon.

"Strike Raid!"

Following suit, Cid unleashes his Big Brawl attack on the dragon. Pulling her arm back, Yuffie strikes the monster with her Superball while Donald and Goofy both case Firaga. Leon and Cloud team up to deliver a crushing punch to the dragon's head. Irritated by the team effort, Kairo lands on the ground with a resounding and damaging crash and began striking them with his scythed tail. Fortunately the invincibility effect of Aerith's technique prevented all of the fighters from taking damage. Avoiding the scorpion-like speed of its tail strikes, Yuffie catches her Superball and throws it once again at the dragon, damaging it even further. The group effort along with Aerith's technique was finally doing significant damage against the dragon. For their final strike, everyone summoned up their most powerful attacks and then unleashes them all at once on the dragon. With a deafening roar, Kairo fades away from sight. Everybody in the town cheers for their combined victory, which causes the group, minus Yuffie and Goofy, to blush in embarrassment.

* * *

The group, including the revitalized Aerith, once again gathered at the café to figure out their next move. They were all greatly disappointed that they were unable to find any trace of the mysterious thief after the dragon battle and sigh in discontent.

"_Now_ what do we do?" groaned Yuffie, blowing a strand of black hair from her face exasperatedly.

"Now that the thief's got every unique item in Traverse Town, there's no chance we'll be able to find her again if she's left for another world," exclaims Donald.

"This is most terrible indeed," agrees Merlin. He turns to Sora, who was looking more depressing than the others. "Sora, my boy, what's gotten you sadder than the others?"

"It's about Fairy Godmother's wand," Sora explains reluctantly.

"Oh yeah," exclaims Goofy. "I completely forgot about that."

"I promised her nothing will happen to it and look what happened," continued Sora, chastising himself.

"It's not your fault Sora," assures Yuffie with a smile. "We'll get the wand and everything else back. Just you wait and see."

Despite the ninja girl's efforts to cheer him up, Sora still felt really bad about the whole situation. Discontented with himself, he goes off to steam in the streets among the inhabitants of Traverse Town. As he saunters bitterly through the lit streets, he suddenly spots a familiar face in the crowd. The thief! The girl had caught sight of Sora and immediately disappears through the shadows of the town buildings. The Keyblade Master races after her and ends up in perhaps the darkest alley in the town.

Inching cautiously through the alley, Sora summons Oathkeeper to his hand and keeps his eyes and ears open for a surprise attack. At the far end of the alley, the boy encounters a heavyset door seemingly made out of metal.

"How weird," he thought out loud as he tries to open it. It was locked. "Figures."

Standing back, Sora aims Oathkeeper at the keyhole and a stringy beam of light shoots out from the tip and into the keyhole. The lock clicks definitely, putting a smile on the boy's face.

Taking hold of the handle, Sora let out a grunt as he pulls the door open. He walks inside, still cautious of any potential ambush. He looks around and found himself in a small empty room, surrounded by concrete walls on all sides; it was somewhat big enough to fit a full twin bed in or two. Confused as to the location of the thief, Sora walks further into the room hoping to find some sort of hint as to where she could be. Suddenly, the floor below him gave out and he let out a surprised cry as he fell through a hidden trap door. He slid through a tunnel engulfed in darkness before emerging on the other end in a well-lit room with wooden walls and floor. Sora lands on the planks with a thud, still disoriented from the sudden fall. He gets up and rubs his aching butt as he scans his new surroundings. The only exits he could see were the slide he came in through and another door which probably connected to another room. Almost immediately he recognizes Cloud's Buster Sword leaning on a nearby wall with Leon's Gunblade right beside it. Not far from the two weapons were the remaining missing items on the floor: Aerith's ribbon, Donald's cap, Goofy's shield, Cid's box of elixirs, Merlin's wand, his five keychains, and the new addition to the collection, Fairy Godmother's wand.

Just then, Sora hears the closing of a door and spins around to find himself face to face with the thief herself.

"So," she spoke first. "You've found my little hideout. But you do realize that now that you know where I keep the items, I can't let you go?"

"I kind of figured that," responded the boy with Oathkeeper ready.

In response, the girl takes hold of her sword's handle and the two of them remained in their place in a standstill.


	3. The Enigmatic Thief Pt III

**The Enigmatic Thief – Part III**

The thief struck first, whipping out her sword so fast, the blade was nothing but a windy blur to the naked eye. Sora was caught off-guard by the speed of the attack, barely managing to dodge the potentially deadly blow. Unfazed by the evasive maneuver the girl advances forward, twisting the blade around to take another swing at the boy. The second charge forced Sora into a wall as he blocks it with Oathkeeper, using both hands to hold off her strong right arm. Now that they were stuck in a standoff with weapons clashed, Sora figures that should give him enough time to think how he was going to take this girl down. Unfortunately, he forgot about the thief's second weapon and watches as she uses her free left hand to switch the staff of her spear around and flip the fierce blade towards him. Sora looks down to see Leon's Gunblade near his right. Using his right foot, he tosses the weapon up and uses it to parry off her spear. Now both of them had their hands fully armed.

Summoning up as much strength as he could, Sora pushes the girl off, sending her gliding backwards a good distance. Undeterred by the counterattack, the thief rushes back at him with both sword and spear. Sora holds on to the Gunblade and Oathkeeper tightly and counters according to what the girl attacked him with: if she struck with her sword, he used the Gunblade; if the spear was coming at him, he'd counter with Oathkeeper.

The battle went on until both of them started breathing heavily. The thief mentally curses at herself for using all of her summons in such a short amount of time. The elixir she had drunken earlier was actually an extra potion she had so she only had enough magic for one strong spell. Remembering the Enemy Skill Materia in her pocket, the thief tries to think of which enemy skill she should use on the boy.

_Aqualung's too big for this place; Laser might bounce off the Buster Sword and do something I might regret…_ thought the thief.

Apprehension filled his body as Sora sees a sinister smirk form on the girl's face. He watches as she withdrew her spear and uses her now free hand to retrieve something behind her. He senses something strong coming so he held Oathkeeper ready to cast either Firaga or Blizzaga.

"Beta!"

A cyclone of fire broke out as soon as she took out a strange yellow orb and the flames surround the prepared boy Holding Oathkeeper before him, Sora focuses on the spell he had ready in his mind.

"Blizzaga!"

The icy attack slams through the fiery walls and engulfs the surprised girl in its icy grasp. With the thief finally defeated and captured, Sora slumps to the ground and breaths a tired sigh of relief.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later, over at Cid's shop, everyone was overjoyed after getting their things back. Even Cloud and Leon showed what looked to be smiles as they felt their respective weapons in their hands. Sora was more than happy to lift the burden of guilt off his back when he gratefully returns Fairy Godmother's wand to her.

The thief, however, was tied up in ropes and sitting cross-legged near the counter with a disappointing frown upon her face. She let out a sneeze and gave a sniffle, reminders of the icy prison she was kept in before being melted free by a grouchy-looking Donald. She suddenly finds a tissue thrust in front of her face and looks up to see the gentle smile of Aerith, who had her hair tied back once again with her beloved ribbon.

Surprised by the kind gesture, the thief turns away to avoid the young woman's gaze. "What are you doing that for? After all I've done to you guys?"

"I'm sure you had a good reason for doing so," replies Aerith. "You've kept our stuff in such good condition, I'm sure you'll be forgiven for your actions."

The thief gives out another sniffle as she eyed the young woman curiously, unsure of what to think about this strange group of friends.

After the "festivities" had died down, Sora and the others went down to business. They all turned to look at the thief who seemed to show no remorse for her past actions.

"So now," began Cid, standing akimbo with the usual toothpick in his mouth. "Are you going to finally tell us who the heck you are?"

The thief gives the group a dubious look as if her identity would be too much information already. Nonetheless, she felt a warmth around these people that she never felt around others on her travels. Sitting up straight, she makes the decision to share her identity.

"The name's Aya, Aya Yurika!" she declares with a grin. "Paleontology and archaeology extraordinaire, at your service!"

"Eh?" exclaims Sora, surprised at both the changed demeanor of the girl and the sound of her unfamiliar scientific terms.

"Paleontology is the study of past forms of life while archaeology is the study of past human life," explains Merlin confidently. "Am I right?"

"Whoa, that's a first," vociferates Aya astonishingly. "No one else on my travels ever knows what those two are."

"Paleo-whatitscalled and arkythingamajig my butt," retorts Yuffie. "You're nothing more than a rare-item thief."

"I prefer the term rare-item huntress, thank you very much," responds Aya. Then remembering the Yuffie she met in the world of Final Fantasy VII, she adds under her breath. "You're one to talk."

"What you say?" demanded the irked ninja girl.

"Nothing of your concern," answered the cool adventurer.

"You trying to start a fight here?"

"Humph, not much of a fight if my opponent's you."

"What's that mean?"

Yuffie looked as if she was ready to punch the girl's lights out until Aerith calms her down with a hand on her shoulder. She kneels down to Aya's eye level seeing as the girl was still sitting down on the floor.

"You said something about meeting someone named Riku, didn't you?" inquired the brown-haired young woman.

"You know Riku?" exclaims Sora with wide eyes. He dashes over to the teenage girl and holds her up by the ropes, oblivious to the strain it put on the girl's arms. "Where is he? Is he allright? What's he doing?"

"Is the king with him?" Donald adds anxiously.

Aerith was aghast by the boy's reaction but she didn't intervene seeing that the rare-item thief didn't seem slightly fazed by the unexpected maneuver.

"Well, I can't say I know him," answered Aya, feeling rather uncomfortable in the position she was in. "I only met him and his little mouse friend while wandering around. We traveled together for a bit but later went our separate ways and that was the last time I saw him. Interesting guy, that Riku. It was him who told me all about the Keyblade master and the keychains."

"Where is he? Where was the last time you saw him?" asks Sora, still holding on to the ropes.

"Does it really matter where it was I last saw him?" responds Aya. "By the time you get there, he'd be long gone along with that King Mickey Mouse guy. There's really no point in me telling you."

Knowing in his heart that she was right, Sora gently puts her down and clenches his hands into fists of frustration.

Shifting uncomfortably in the ropes, Aya looks up at the boy with a quizzical look in her eyes. "What's your beef with this guy? Is he your enemy or something?"

"No," answered Sora definitely. "He was my best friend. No, not was. He _is_ my best friend and still is. I need to find him so we could go home together."

"Sorry I couldn't be of much more help," apologizes Aya. "But now that we've established a common acquaintance, can I get these ropes off of me now?"

"How do we know you won't go off and try to take our stuff again?" asks Leon.

"I give you my word," assures Aya. "I won't touch any of your stuff ever again. Adventurer's honor."

"Can we trust her?" wonders Goofy.

"The way she sneakily attacked us is something to consider," adds Donald.

"I'm insulted," exclaims Aya, hearing all of this insecurity. "Have a little faith, would ya?"

"She _did_ keep our stuff in good condition," notes Aerith, trying her best to defend the poor girl. "And she doesn't seem like the type to sell our stuff off."

The teenage girl shakes her head in agreement with the young woman. "I collect rare items and know their value. I'd NEVER sell them."

"I don't know," responds Yuffie, cocking an unsure eye at the girl.

"Aw, c'mon, give me a second chance," pleaded Aya. "I'm sure all of you guys needed one at one point in your life."

Sora remembered giving Cloud a second chance after he fought him at the Coliseum. He looks over at the blonde swordsman who seems to recall that event too. With a smile, the boy turns back to the teenage girl and walks over to her to untie her. Glad to have the pressure of the ropes off of her, Aya jumps to her feet and began doing stretching exercises to relieve her limbs.

"Now we've got our eyes on ya so don't go tryin' to pull anything on us," warns Cid.

"I gave you my word didn't I?" replies Aya.

"Actions speak louder than words," clichéd Donald.

"Ooh, trust is an annoying thing, isn't it?" groans the teenage girl, crossing her arms.

**The End… or is it?...**


	4. Aya's Origins 1

_Where did Aya come from? How did she come to know Riku? Find the answers to these questions and see why Aya has such strong connections to the world of Final Fantasy VII._

* * *

**Aya's Origins – Chapter 1**

In an unknown world engulfed in darkness, a meek spark of light appears in its midst. The small spark slowly began growing bigger and bigger in size, becoming a very large sphere of swirling light. Just when the sphere became large enough to illuminate a huge area of the dark world, it bursts into thousands and thousands of shooting-star-like pieces, each of them lighting up a bit of the darkness. When the blinding light finally dissipates, in the sphere's place appeared a teenage girl. She was clad in a blue jean jacket with its sleeves rolled up past her elbows, an off-white shirt underneath. On each hand she wore dark colored finger gloves, gloves that covered the entire hand except for the fingers. Held up by a fitting belt, her loose blue jean pants covers up the rest of her body, ending in a pair of dark brown hiking boots.

As she lands on an unseen ground of the dark world, her short raven-black hair falls over her red-orange eyes that bounce about in an effort to understand where she was. Around her waist was another belt and from her right shoulder to the left side of her waist hung yet another belt, except this one was strapped to a rather fierce-looking spear with its cool brown staff ending in a pair of red and silver blades.

"Where… am I?"

The teenage girl was amazed at the sound that came from her own mouth. It was the first words she had ever spoken and it surprised and amused her both at the same time. She looks down at herself to see the clothes she wore and the weapon she wielded. She became filled with a strange sense of confidence as she tests out the various features and abilities of her body.

"What… am I?"

She looks down at her finger-gloved hands to roll them into fists, spread them out, and then clenched them into fists again. _Human. That's what I am. A human._

Satisfied with the answer, the teenage girl looks around at her endless surroundings just as the last of the flying light spheres disappears into the darkness. Suddenly, the ground she was standing on was no longer there and she began plummeting into a never-ending void of blackness, yelling out as she fell.

…

Light… Greenery... Shadows… Blue sky…

The teenage girl opens her eyes to find herself lying down face up in another world, a world full of color and light. Taking a deep breath, she breathes in the smells of the dense forestry around her, the sounds of animals hiding in the foliage echoing into her ears. She sits up eagerly to look at the trees around her, small beams of light piercing through the dense leaves and branches. She sees a green frog hop by, insects landing and feeding on flowers that sprout from the ground, a dew drop separating from the point of a leaf and falling into the grass below. The sight filled her with a sense of happiness and elatedness.

"Now this is _much_ better than that other place I was in."

With a big grin on her face, the teenage girl gets up to her feet, brushing off the grass and shrubs that had stuck themselves onto her clothing. Making sure her weapons were secured on her, the teenage girl saunters off through the forest, admiring every little speck of life around her. After walking for about ten minutes, the ground beneath her feet suddenly disappeared as the girl unknowingly falls down a steep cliff.

Instinctively, the teenage girl throws her arms in front of her face as she rolls down the cliff head over heels over and over and over. Pain shot through her body with every rock and pebble she hits on the way down. Just when it seemed that the falling will never end, the girl comes to a stop at the bottom of the cliff, hitting a rather huge boulder head on.

"Oww…" she groans as she clutches her head.

She sits up on the dusty ground she landed on and exhales with exasperation. "So _that's_ pain…"

Despite the throbbing pain, the girl manages to get up on her feet and dust herself off. She discovers that she was no longer in the nice inviting forest, but in an inhospitable and lifeless canyon. She turns her nose up at the lack of diverse coloration in the tan-colored place and began walking towards what looked like houses built into a part of the canyon. Noticing movement in the group of houses, she ascends some carved out stairs to be greeted by an enthusiastic young man wearing brown shoes, brown pants, and a white shirt with a white headband topping off his forehead and outfit.

"Welcome to Cosmo Canyon," he greets with a smile. "Are you here to learn about the Study of Planet Life?"

"Actually, I'm feelin' kind of hungry right now," replies the teenage girl, placing a hand over her growling stomach.

"Oh, I see," chuckles the young man. "We have a bar not far from here. Follow me and I'll show you."

With a nod, the teenage girl walks after the young man, who leads her to a cozy little eatery built into the wall of rock that the town was built on. Upon entering the establishment, the teenage girl was suddenly greeted by an energetic old man who had some sort of mechanical device covering up the lower half of his body which possessed no legs.

"Ooh hoo hoo!" exclaims the old man. "A visitor! Glad to meet you!"

"Hi," the teenage girl greets back with a nervous smile. How _was_ he floating around like that?

"Oooh hoo hoo!" chirped the old man. "There's no reason to be nervous, young lady. No harm will come to you here."

The teenage girl gives a smile to show that she acknowledged his assurance.

"By the way," added the old man before he left the restaurant. "What is your name, young lady?"

"My name…" began the teenage girl. Her mind instantly popped up the answer she needed. "My name is Aya Yurika… Paleontology and archaeology extraordinaire, at your service!"

"Oh my, what an eager young mind!" exclaims the old man with glee. "Learning about past forms of life and past human life! I'm sure you'll be quite happy to stay here and learn about the Study of Planet Life!"

"That sounds great," replied Aya.

"Ooh hoo hoo, I shall be off!" declares the old man. But before he exits the restaurant, he turns to gleam at the teenage girl. "Oh, by the way, my name's Bugenhagen. If you want to learn more about the Study of Planet Life, be sure to ask around for me. I'll be more than happy to share my knowledge with you!"

"Thanks for the offer, but I'll only be here for a short time," responded Aya.

"I understand," said Bugenhagen with a smile. "I'll see you around!"

With that, the old man zips out of the building and off to who knows where. Inside, Aya giggles at the strange encounter and becomes happy to have met someone new.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

After having a filling and free, courtesy of Bugenhagen, meal Aya takes off and leaves Cosmo Canyon behind. There was so much about this world that she wanted to explore and her curious excitement left little time for her to acclimate to her new surroundings. Upon leaving the bland-looking canyon, the teenage girl was thrust into another different natural environment. This time, she came to an area of land carpeted by green grass as far as the eye could see. In the distance stood tall dark mountains that appeared as if a huge dragon lumbered there with the top part of its mighty jaws gone. Shaking with anxiety and curiosity, Aya dashes toward a town that lays at the foot of the ominous peaks, ignorant of the dangers that they possibly posed.

She hears the sound of rapid steps approaching behind her and turns around to find herself being stalked by a pack of four brown-furred wolf-like monsters. With a smile she stands her ground and whips out her spear with a flick of her right hand just as the Nibel wolves surround her. They growl viciously at her as she stood there in a standstill. A small wind blows by, sending smells of rotten flesh from the monsters' mouths to the teenager's nose.

After what seemed like an eternity, one of the Nibel wolves lunges at her with sharp fangs wide open to chomp off a piece of her. Aya smirks confidently and swings her spear at the creature, sending it flying back with a yelp. On cue, the others attack as well; however, Aya was prepared as she whips her spear around her and sends the blade of her weapon slicing through each of the three monsters. The Nibel wolves gave out a cry of pain as they turn red and fade away into the air. The remaining wolf, which Aya had batted away earlier, growls fiercely at her before jumping at the teenager for another attack. Aya's last attack had left her wide open for the wolf's attack, but the creature hadn't taken into account that she was inhumanly fast. With a nonchalant flair, the teenage girl uses her free hand to flip the spear around and quickly cut the last wolf down with lightening speed. There was a howl of pain as the monster's body turns red like the others and disappears into thin air.

Aya barely broke a sweat throughout the entire battle, which intrigued her. She knew that a battle like that would make a normal person breathe hard, but her breathing was slow and steady.

"Am I a normal human?" she wonders out loud.

Shaking her head in apathy at the question, she casts any concern for it aside and continues her way to the small town.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Upon stepping foot in the town, Aya was met with the sight of houses and buildings being finished by several groups of uniformed workers. Weaving through the obstacles of wood, paint, and metal works, the teenage girl makes her way through the crowd. As she went, she notices a red diamond-shaped logo on the workers' uniforms. Taking a closer look, she could make out the words "Shin-Ra Electric Power Company" on one of them and hums to herself in curiosity.

"Shouldn't an electric power company be only concerned with electricity?" she thought out loud. "What is this company doing rebuilding a town?"

"Hey, you there!"

Aya turns around to see a rather tall bald man in a blue-themed suit looming over her. She cranes her head up to see her reflection in the man's expensive-looking sunglasses.

"Are you an inhabitant of the town?" he asks her.

"Uh…" Aya's mouth gaped open as she searches through her head for an answer to this strange man's question. "Nope, just passing by. What are you guys doing here? Is this a new town you're building?"

"It's none of your business," replies the bald man nonchalantly. "Beat it."

His refusal to answer her questions made her even more curious to know what was going on. "Ah, I see. You've got some sort of top secret operation goin' on here, don't ya?"

The bald man simply bends over enough so that his sunglasses were at the girl's eye level. "Beat it, or I'll throw you out myself."

"Hold it, Rude."

Aya turns to find a young man in a sloppy version of the bald man's suit approach the both of them, his disheveled red hair bouncing about with each step he took. In his right hand he had an electro-rod, which was turned off and rested upon his right shoulder.

"What is it, Reno?" the bald man responds at the sound of his name.

"You know our orders," reminded Reno, tapping the electro-rod on his shoulder. "Anyone who sees this whole setup is to be taken directly to Professor Hojo. No questions asked."

"Oh, right," exclaims Rude.

"Looks like today just happens to be your unlucky day, missy," scoffs Reno as he takes hold of Aya's arm.

"Guess again," smirks Aya. She twists herself out of the young man's grip and lands a kick on Rude's face, knocking the man's sunglasses off.

"Allright, you asked for it!"

With a wave of his hand, Reno summons a group of ten armed Shin-Ra Grunts to surround the teenage girl. Feeling the adrenaline rush through her body at the sight of the challenge, Aya whips out her spear with a grin plastered across her face. Spinning the long-ranged weapon about her skillfully and effortlessly, she makes easy work of the Grunts, taking all of them out a handful at a time. Rude and Reno couldn't believe their eyes as they watched the girl make easy work of the soldiers they sent in. Thinking that it was time for drastic measures, Reno sends in three 3rd-Class SOLDIERs. His eyes nearly leapt out of their sockets when he saw the teenage girl take out the Mako-powered SOLDIERs as well.

"She's definitely not normal," notes Rude with a gulp.

Thinking fast, Reno turns on his electro-rod and zaps an electric spark of yellow light right at the girl. Aya turns around just in time for the spark to hit her and encase her entire body in a transparent pyramid. In an instant, her body stopped and she was unable to move around as she saw the two Turks saunter up to her.

"That was close," Reno sighs as he looks up at the imprisoned girl. "With strength like that, she'd make one hell of a SOLDIER. Probably give even Sephiroth a run for his money."

Rude nods in agreement. "Let's take her to Hojo then."


	5. Aya's Origins 2

**Aya's Origins – Chapter 2**

Aya awakens to find herself floating in a tank of greenish liquid. She felt dazed and confused as she looks around to see that she was being held in a laboratory of some sort.

_When did I fall asleep?_ she wonders. She tries to move and feels a sharp pain shoot through the nape of her neck. Reaching up with her right hand, she feels along her neck and discovers a small lump in the skin near her artery, the body's reaction of swelling slightly in order to heal a piercing hole. _Hmm, they must've given me a shot of sleeping serum when I wasn't looking. Damn it hurts._

As she tries to awaken the rest of her body, Aya turns to find a couple of young men beside her, each in his own tank of greenish liquid.

_What the heck is this place?_ she thought in curiosity.

Thrusting herself through the liquid, she leans up against the glass of her tank to have a better look at her surroundings. All around her were laboratory machinery, shelves upon shelves of books that extended down a long hallway, and scattered pieces of paper and other laboratory equipment. Leaning next to the only desk in the room was her spear along with a very large broadsword that most likely belonged to either one of the two young men in the tanks.

Yearning for the freedom, and dryness, of the outside world Aya summons up all the strength she could muster and sends her finger-gloved fist flying through the tough glass. The impact shatters the glass and creates an opening large enough for her to pour out of her watery prison. Save for some cuts and scratches on her exposed arms and head, the teenage girl was in good enough shape to carry herself out of that place.

Before she leaves, she hurries over to the desk and straps on her spear and turns to face the two young men in the tanks. A feeling of sympathy washes over her at the sight of them.

"You guys were captured just like I was, weren't you?" she vociferates softly.

She reaches behind her to take out her sword when a voice stops her in her tracks.

"Don't even think about it."

Whipping around quickly with her hand still on her spear's staff, Aya finds herself face to face with a much older man in a white laboratory coat. His long black hair was tied back, but strands of it had sought to hang themselves over the man's face. Lucky for him, his poor eyesight requires him to wear glasses, which did more than enough to keep the pesky strands of hair out of his eyes.

"Who are you?" demanded Aya with a glare in her eyes.

"I am Professor Hojo, a scientist working under Shin-Ra," answered the old man.

"What would an electric company want with a scientist?" wonders the teenage girl.

"You must have be born and raised under a rock or something," retorts Hojo. "Shin-Ra is no longer simply an electric power company. It controls almost everything from weapons development to scientific studies, a force to be reckoned with."

"Allright then," said Aya. "What do you plan to do with these two guys?"

"Those specimens are not nearly as intriguing as _you_ are," replies Hojo, adjusting his glasses. "You're not like any human I've experimented on, no not at all. Unlike normal human beings, you don't possess a heart."

"What are you talking about?" demanded Aya. "How can I not have a heart? How can I be alive without one?"

"Heh heh heh heh, you tell me," returns Hojo. "After I put you to sleep, I examined you and discovered many things about you. Not only do you not possess a heart, you also do not possess a stomach, intestines, muscles, or even a brain for that matter. You're nothing but an empty shell biologically, yet on the outside you seem like a normal human being."

"An empty shell?" repeated Aya, confused. "There's no way that's possible. I _am_ human. I get hungry like one, I feel pain like one; I even bleed like one."

She holds up her bloodied arm to affirm her words.

"Yes, you have all the attributes of being human," notes Hojo, raising a hand to his chin in thought. "However, through my examinations, you're not entirely human at all. You possess inhuman strength without the use of Mako and you contain physically nothing on the inside. This is very intriguing indeed. Hee hee hee hee hee!"

"I'm not going to stand here and listen to your lies!"

Gripping her spear tightly, Aya whips it out and lunges at the old man. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out and Aya falls to the ground with immense pain spreading through her chest. Groaning in pain, she forces herself up and places her free hand over the site of the pain to nullify it. Looking up, she could see a tall young man standing beside Hojo, his long dark hair untied and residing behind his head. The gun he had aimed at her was the source of the gunshot and Aya quickly figured out where the bullet had went.

"You see," began Hojo. "A wound like that would've been fatal for a normal human being. Yet here you stand, still breathing, still alive."

The teenage girl pulls her hand away and looks down at herself. Blood stained the whole front of her grayish white shirt and dripped down her hand. The bullet had gone straight through her chest where her heart would be located. The scientist was right; it was a fatal wound and yet she was still alive.

_What the hell is going on?_ she wonders in silence.

Confused and scared, Aya races out of the laboratory with Tseng chasing after her. She gave no concern as the two Turks she had met earlier appear in her way with electro-rods drawn. Roaring angrily, she breaks through them and ascends the spiraling wooden planks of the underground stairway up into the Shinra Mansion above. She made no move to stop, even when bullets whizzed by her with some going into her legs and sides.

Once she got outside, Aya kept running and running until the pain in her chest forces her to rest at the southernmost beach on the continent. Breathing heavily, she collapses upon the sandy shores utterly confused and dizzy from the loss of blood.

"What… what the hell am I?" she asks herself.

Watching her blood roll into the sand and swept away with the incoming tide, blackness encompasses Aya's eyes as she slowly fell unconscious.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Aya awoke sometime later to find herself in a circular room lined with wooden crates and soft white sacks and pillows. Lying down, she stares up at the rock ceiling and walls in an effort to ascertain where it was she is.

"You heal quite quickly for a human."

The teenager turns to see a strange red-furred creature with a flaming tail looking at her. Four feathers adorn the mammalian's mane and a Mohawk of longer and redder fur ran from the top of its head down its back. On each of its four legs it wore golden bangles, which are possibly more than just pieces of jewelry.

"Where am I?" inquires Aya, unfazed by the creature's ability to talk.

"You're in Cosmo Canyon," answers the creature, which seemed to be female by the sound of its voice. "I carried you here in order to treat your injuries. What on Planet happened to you?"

Aya turns back to look up at the ceiling and gives a sigh. "I got into a fight, that's all."

"I see," said the creature. "What is your name, young one?"

"Aya… Aya Yurika," answers the teenage girl. She tries to sit up and groans as pain sparks through her body.

"Easy now," warns the creature. "Though you are fully healed, you still need time to recover."

Aya gave an exasperated sigh as she lies back down. "Why… Why am I here?"

"Hmm?" exclaims the creature curiously.

"I feel… as if I don't belong here," explains the teenage girl.

"Everyone feels that way when they are not home," said the creature.

"Home…" repeated Aya. "Where _is_ my home?"

"Are you lost, child?" wonders the creature, cocking its head to the side.

"More than you know," replies the teenager.

"Hmm, I think you and my son would get along with a mind like that," chuckles the creature. "You both like to brood on such things."

"You have a son?" inquires Aya.

The creature gives a nod of affirmation. "His name is Nanaki, but he's not here right now. Probably out exploring and scouting the canyon as we speak."

"Oh," sighs the teenage girl. "Hey, do you know an old man by the name of Bugenhagen?"

"Why yes," answers the creature. "He is my tribe's elder. You have met him?"

"Some time ago," replies Aya. "Is it possible for me to see him?"

"Of course," responded the creature. "I'll take you to him as soon as you recover."

"How about now?" exclaims Aya leaping off the crates she was lying on and landing with a groan of pain. "Ow…"

"What have I told you?" the creature chastises in a motherly way.

Aya gives a most humorous grin in response. "Hey, don't worry about me. Teenagers such as myself bounce back fast."

"Isn't that the truth?" chuckles the creature, thinking of her own "teenage" son.


	6. Aya's Origins 3

**Aya's Origins – Chapter 3**

The creature led Aya up a series of carved out stairs going up and into the canyon rock. When the two came across a wooden ladder, the creature turns around to face the girl.

"You shall continue on from here on out," exclaims the creature. "I've never been too fond of climbing ladders and the like."

"Really? How old are you?" wonders Aya.

"A bit around 500 of your human years," answers the creature.

"500 years old?!" vociferates Aya in surprise.

"Yes," affirms the creature. "My species has a very extensive lifespan compared to you humans."

"Wow," gasps the teenager in awe.

"Ahem, anyways," began the creature. "Once you get to the top of this ladder, proceed to the metal structure at the top and you will meet my tribe elder."

"Okay," affirms Aya, giving a thumb's up and a smile. "Thanks for the help."

"It's no trouble at all," assures the creature.

With that, the creature walks away and Aya proceeds to ascend the wooden ladder.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

At the top of the ladder, Aya emerges to find herself at the top of the canyon. In awe, she looks over the metallic railings to gaze out at the beautiful view from above. It was dusk in the canyon and the sight of the lowering sun in the distance bathing the rocks in a golden tan of light took her breath away.

"It is a beautiful sight, is it not?"

Aya turns to find the airborne old man floating with his arms behind him.

"I've never seen anything like it before in my life," she affirms with a smile.

Bugenhagen nods in acknowledgement. "I see you've returned, Aya Yurika."

"There have been a lot of questions on my mind lately," explains Aya. "I was hoping that maybe you'd have an answer to some of them."

"I see," says Bugenhagen. "Well, come on inside and let's see what I can do."

No sooner had they entered the building when the teenage girl finally pops the question that she's been yearning to find the answer to.

"Tell me… what does it mean to be human?" asks Aya intently.

"Well, that's a most difficult question to answer," asserts Bugenhagen as he looks up and strokes his beard in thought. "I've been a human all my life and even now I still don't really know what it means to be human. Some say being human means to be able to feel pain, love, and hate. I guess that could be true. Nanaki and his species have never known these emotions until we taught him and his species how to talk and lived together in harmony."

"Pain… Love… and hate…" repeated Aya. "Why is it that only humans can feel such emotions?"

"Well, you can't simply say humans are the only ones to feel those emotions," replies Bugenhagen. "Creatures such as Nanaki's mother whom you've met earlier can feel the same."

"But what of hate?" wonders the teenage girl. "You can't say all non-human creatures know of that emotion. Hate doesn't exist in nature, it's unnecessary."

"You're quite right about that," asserts the old man. "Animals and monsters kill in order to survive. Humans created hate for what reason or purpose, I do not know. Maybe it was born to fill the empty void of reasoning that survival and nourishment fails to fill."

After a few moments of thought, Aya stands up determined and with fists clenched. "I know what I'm going to do now."

She turns to leave the building with the curious old man wondering what was going through her mind. Before she went through the door, she turns to face him with a smile. "Thanks for the help, Bugenhagen."

With that, the teenage girl was gone, leaving the old man confused as to what just happened.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Walking through the canyon the next morning with Cosmo Canyon far behind her, Aya heads for the place where she first appeared in this world: the Ancient Forest. She reaches the foot of the steep cliff leading up to the forest and looks up in thought of how to get up there. A tribesman from Cosmo Canyon had shown her a map of an alternative but time-consuming route that would take her to the other side of the canyon wall, a route that Aya felt was a waste of her time if she could just scale the wall and get up. It was a shorter but harder way to get where she wanted to go.

Taking a deep breath, Aya rubs her finger-gloved hands together and grabs hold of a protrusion in the rocky wall. Steadying herself, she slowly began climbing up the cliff, ignoring the straining weight of her weapons threatening to pull her down. Reaching the halfway point up the rock wall, Aya notices that night was falling and quickens her pace to reach the top before darkness overwhelms the area.

Her right hand clasps hard onto the rough edge of the cliff top just as the sky turned dark and she heaves herself up onto the carpet of grass layered on the top of the cliff. Aya breathes a sigh of relief as she lies on the prickly grass and looks up at the night sky, the stars just beginning to appear. A shooting star trails along the sky, seemingly pointing her in the direction of the forest itself. Minutes later, Aya catches her breath and gets up to proceed toward the dark forest.

The teenage girl breaks off a branch and lights it up with a spark of Fire magic that she had suddenly acquired. The flames dance over her face and ebony bangs as she stares into its fiery light. There was so much that she did not understand about herself and it scared her. She felt as if her abilities were being passed on to her from an unknown source as her nonobjective journey continues.

_A connection… I'm connected… But to what?_

Unanswered questions ran through Aya's head as she saunters through the forest blindly, unsure of where it was she was supposed to go. Just then she hears the sound of footsteps crashing through the thicket on her right. She turns in time to see the two young men she saw in the laboratory's tanks come barreling through. She notices one of them, the blonde-haired one, was not fully conscious and was being literally dragged along by the other, dark-haired young man. Chasing not far behind them was a squad of armed men that looked like the MPs she saw guarding Nibelheim. Without a second thought she swings her spear around, catching one of the chasing MPs in the chest and knocking him out cold. Another comes at her with a katana and she blocks it with the staff of her spear. She then knocks him down with her overpowering strength and finishes off the rest of the men with another powerful swing of her spear.

"Who are you?"

The teenage girl turns to face the dark-haired young man. "I'm Aya Yurika."

"I'm Zack," replies the young man. "I remember you from Hojo's laboratory. You've managed to escape, I see."

"Yeah, I did," responds Aya. "And I see you guys made it out as well." She turns to the blonde-haired, whom Zack was setting down beside him. "What's wrong with him?"

"Cloud's Mako-poisoned," answers Zack. "His mind and body couldn't handle the dosage Hojo gave him."

"Mako?" wonders Aya.

"That's the stuff all of us were floating around in," explains the young man. "If your mind isn't strong enough, the Mako will poison it and leave you comatose."

"Is he going to be all right?" asks Aya, feeling a little worried for the poor blonde.

"He will be once we get to Midgar," asserts Zack, turning towards his younger friend. "I have someone there who can help him. I haven't seen her in a long time, though. I hope she still remembers me." He then turns toward Aya. "So, where are _you_ headed?"

"I… I'm looking for an island…" replies the teenage girl, not really sure of her answer. "I don't know what it's called, though."

"An island?" repeated Zack, scratching his head. "Well, the only island I know of is Mideel and that's located south, southeast of here."

"Then… I guess I'll be heading there then," exclaims Aya determinately.

"Maybe we'll see each other again," asserts Zack, picking up Cloud. "Oh, by the way, do you have any Materia?"

"Materia?" repeated Aya. "What's that?"

An eyebrow rises in surprise on Zack's face. "You don't know what Materia is? It's what allows us to use magic spells."

The teenage girl looks down at the ground, her black bangs falling over her face. _I don't have any Materia at all. So how did I manage to acquire my Fire magic?_

She turns to find a yellow glassy sphere coming at her. In surprise she reactively catches it in her hands, a tint of light glowing from within.

"That's an extra Enemy Skill Materia I had," explains Zack. "Some Materia are pretty rare so don't lose any you get."

Aya turns the strange orb over in her hands. "How do I use it?"

"That one you have there is a type of Materia called a Command Materia," explains Zack. "This one in particular allows you to copy a monster's attack and use it whenever you want. It doesn't always work, but it's pretty handy once you've gotten a bunch of monster attacks stored in it."

Feeling its importance and rarity in the palm of her hand, Aya places it carefully into one of her pockets. "Thanks, Zack."

"No problem," assures the young man. They hear the sounds of reinforcements in the air and look at each other. "Well, I've got to go. Good luck getting to Mideel."

"And good luck getting to Midgar," replies Aya as the two went their separate ways.

Hoping that Zack and Cloud manages to escape their pursuers Aya runs at full speed, leaping over and ducking under branches and foliage that try to get in her way. After a while, she decides to climb up a tree and swings through the branches. She can see a river appear ahead and rushes to reach it.

_Maybe this river will lead to the ocean where Mideel is._

Leaping off another tree branch, Aya lands on the ground and dashes for the river when a small green frog appears in front of her. She tries to move around it but it hops in her way, not allowing her to pass at all. Feeling a bit annoyed, Aya takes out the Enemy Skill Materia and looks through the monster attacks Zack had already acquired.

"Aqualung?... Beta?... Laser?..."

Just then, the little frog began croaking melodiously and Aya suddenly feels very fatigued and tired. She struggles to stay awake, but her heavy eyelids betray her and before she knew what was happening, she fell to the ground and her world went black.


	7. Aya's Origins 4

**Aya's Origins – Chapter 4**

The midday sun was high overhead as it shone its bright beams down upon a sleeping teenage girl. Fairly skinned eyelids flutter open and fiery red-orange eyes peer through scattered black layers of short hair. Feeling refreshed and well-rested, Aya sits herself up and brushes her short black hair out of her face, unsure of what had happened to her. She turns to see the Enemy Skill Materia lying beside her, its golden coloration radiating from the sunlight. She picks up the glasslike orb and holds it up to the sun between her index finger and thumb.

"Frog Song…"

Aya's other hand feels something odd on the ground and the girl turns and looks down to see a deep gash in the grass. Feeling the edges of the slash with her fingers, Aya notes that this was done by some sort of weapon. She knew it couldn't have possibly done by her because her spear was not in any position to do such damage and the frog didn't have the capabilities to make such a mark either.

_Hey, what happened to the frog?_

The teenage girl turns to find that the frog she had encountered last night was nowhere to be found. She gets up and stretches herself out, figuring that whatever made that strange mark on the ground chased the frog away. Fully prepared for the day Aya follows the river, picking up berries and fruits along the way to satisfy her hunger and slashing away low branches and shrubbery with her odd spear. An hour or so passes before she finally makes it to the beach; oddly at peace yet feeling uncertain, she walks over to the edge of the beach, the ebbing water flowing around the black soles of her dark brown hiking boots. For a few quite moments she stood there staring out at the ocean, an empty berry sprig sticking out of her mouth and her spear in her right hand. She was so entranced by the sight before her that she failed to notice a mysterious figure come out behind her.

The figure walks slowly towards her, seeing the transparent image of a spiky-haired teenage boy in her stand. When the figure was a matter of feet away from her, Aya turns to point the point of her spear's blade at his face. The image of the boy was gone and only she was in the figure's sight.

"Who are you?" she demanded with glaring eyes.

The young man before her looked much older than her, perhaps by five years or so. His spiky red hair stuck out from his head like porcupine quills, radiating his possibly fiery nature. A fitting black sleeveless shirt and a pair of jean pants that went just down below the knees make up the main parts of his outfit. A pair of big black and blue tennis shoes on his feet and black wristbands complements the outfit along with a brown belt and solid silver buckle. A pair of strange circular ninja-star-like objects hangs on either side of his pants, white coloration on the outer rims of the interlocking rings while red dominated the inner rims and black covers the perpendicular handles. A silver chain necklace around his neck and silver chain bracelet on his right wrist were the only pieces of jewelry on him, unless you counted the circular accessories on the sides of his pants.

"Uh, you're welcome," sighs the man, crossing his arms. "For getting you that Frog Song enemy skill."

"What are you talking about?"

"You can't acquire a new enemy skill unless you let the monster attack you with that skill first and then you destroy it afterwards," explains the man.

Aya suddenly remembers the gash in the grass she saw back at the forest and tightens her grip on her spear. Something told her that he knows how to fight very well. "That was you?"

"Sure was," asserts the man, patting one of his circular weapons. "And you can thank my chakrams for that."

Aya gazes downward at the chakrams, a feeling of nostalgia washing over her.

"A being of the past reborn from elements of the present."

The teenage girl looks up at the man. "Who are you?"

"Ale," replies the man.

"Ale?"

"Yeah, I know; weird name," responded Ale, scratching his head. "I didn't name myself, remember that."

"What… am I?" asks Aya.

"That's what I'd like to know, too," asserts the man. "But, you know, we're not all that different. We've been reborn for something."

"Then what are we here for?" inquired the teenage girl.

As if to answer her question, Ale turns toward the ocean. Aya turns to see what he was looking at and discovers that a strange flow of bright green bubbled slightly up to the surface of the water not too far from shore; maybe a swim's length.

"What is that?"

"The Lifestream," answers Ale. "The souls and knowledge of all who lived and died in this world are there. Chances are… you'll find the answers you're looking for there."

Aya turns to look at the young man as she finally lowers her weapon and puts it away. "Why are you helping me?"

Ale turns to face the girl. "I guess… that's _my_ purpose for existing."

Without warning, he grabs his chakrams and holds them out at his sides, fire blazing around his feet. Aya whips out her spear and stands ready to attack.

"What's the meaning of this?" she demanded angrily.

"There's something you need to remember first before I let you depart," exclaims Ale. He throws the weapons at the girl, who deflects them off with her spear. "Remember!"

"Remember what?" Aya yells back as she defends herself from his flying chakrams again. "I can't remember nothing."

"Remember your past life! Remember your weapon's name!" exclaimed Ale as the chakrams returned to his hand and his easily throws them back at the girl. "Remember me!"

"I don't know you!" Aya deflects one of the chakrams but the other cuts through her left shoulder.

"Yes you do!"

With both chakrams in his hands, Ale comes at Aya, slashing away as she tries to dodge his attacks. Each time a chakram came at her, Aya saw a flash of some memory she never knew she had. She saw a memory of herself in an entirely different outfit sparring with the young man before her who was also in a similarly styled outfit with their respective weapons. She saw faces of people she felt to be her friends. She saw a beautiful world where people lived in harmony. She saw herself sitting on a grassy hill watching the sunset. In the memory, arms came around from behind to hold her in a warm embrace. Strong arms; arms that were now fighting her once again.

"Ale…"

The next thing Aya knew, her spear had pierced through the young man's chest. Ale groans in pain as he drops his chakrams and pulls the spear slowly out of him. Aya could do nothing but watch as black smoke began evaporating from his wound. With a final pull, the spear falls to the ground along with the injured Ale. Aya rushes to catch him and the two lean upon one another on their sandy knees.

"So…" he began. "You really do remember me."

"Why…" began Aya. "Why did you have to fight me?"

"You remembered a little, didn't you?" asserts Ale with a smile. "Besides, I should've disappeared a long time ago. I'm not supposed to exist anymore."

"Why?"

"Because…" explains Ale as more dark smoke evaporated from his body. "Heartless aren't supposed to exist."

"Heartless?"

"You're not a Heartless, Aya," assures the young man. "Your existence is different from mine. You're a part of something even greater."

The teenage girl could feel the being fading away from under her arms. "Will we see each other again?"

"I don't know," answers Ale. "But I hope we do… Goodbye, Aya."

With all that was said and done, Ale's body dissipates completely away, the black smoke fading into the air. Aya watches as it fades and gets up to her feet. She then walks over to her spear and picks it up to put it away.

"Let's go, Ferocity."

She walks into the water and begins swimming towards the Lifestream spring in the midst of the ocean.


	8. Aya's Origins 5

**Aya's Origins – Chapter 5**

Floating in the middle of the Lifestream, Aya fought to retain her identity as she sank further and further down into the ethereal depths. When she couldn't sink any further, she began using her arms to propel herself deeper into the brightening glow of the flowing Lifestream, which was mixing with the ocean currents yet remaining as one. All around her were the voices of the deceased, crying out either in anger and vengeance or regret and yearning. She wonders if she will be able to hear Ale's voice, but something told her that he won't be found anywhere in the Lifestream. Closing her eyes, she eases up on her swimming efforts, her body relaxing in the process. In her mind, she could see the images she saw earlier in her fight with Ale, but more began presenting itself to her.

_A beautiful world where the sky was a clear clean blue and the air was crisp and fresh. Rural villages and urban cities dotted the world. The scent of sweet cherry blossoms gently caresses her nose as she gazes out over vast grassland from atop a hill where a field of flowers and blooming trees grew. A small flock of ducks flew overhead, surfing on a soft breeze that ruffles her spiky ebony bangs and short boy-cut hair. Coming up and taking a seat behind her was Ale, wrapping his arms around her in a protective embrace. Aya smiles as he lays his head on her shoulder and enjoys the view with her._

_Then, beside her and Ale on the left, came a tan-ish blonde-haired young man whose hair was in the shape of a strange style of a mullet. Clad in a white t-shirt, a pair of sea-blue jeans, and black sneakers, he places a dark brown colored sitar gently on the grass near him as he sat beside her with a greeting smile._

_Emyd…_

_Afterwards, a blonde-haired girl with a similar boy-cut hairstyle plops down on her right, tinkering with some sharp, narrow-pointed weapons. She had on a green fitting tank top with a pair of black slacks and dark brown boots. She says something, but Aya could not hear anything coming from the girl's mouth._

_Relena…_

_My… friends…_

Aya struggles hard to remember more, but something in the back of her mind prevented her from accessing more of her lost memories. It felt as if she wasn't supposed to remember because they're not her memories to remember.

_They're my memories, yet they're not…_

"Ale! Emyd! Relena!"

The young woman opens her eyes to find herself atop of a very tall cylindrical platform. The ground beneath her was pure white; so white that it seemed as if it was light and not a shade of color. All around her was darkness as far as the eye could see, seemingly endless. Curious, she wanders around her new surroundings, looking down at the edge towards a bottomless darkness. Fearing that she would end up in an eternal fall, she steps away from the edge and walks over towards the center of the circular platform. After simply seven steps, the ground beneath her began breaking up into crystalline shards of white, blowing upwards at her. She shields herself from the sudden gust as the whiteness of the ground broke away to reveal a strange glowing image behind the light.

When the white shards have dissipated, Aya found herself standing on top of a circular image of an unfamiliar teenage boy with blonde hair embracing a girl of similar age and hair color in an eternal slumber. Behind them was an unfamiliar symbol as well as two strange key-like weapons in an x cross position. A thematic pale blue dominated the intricate design of the image, indicating a sort of fading away feeling.

Gazing down at their white-themed clothing, the girl felt a strong emotion of sympathy for the two. So strong was the sympathy that a tear came to fall down her cheek. Surprised by the sudden reaction, Aya puts a hand to her face and the salty drop clings itself to a finger.

"Nobody…"

The girl turns around to find herself face to face with a young childlike being wearing a sleeveless hooded dress of a cloak. The being's dark brown skin and shadowed face left Aya yelping in surprise at the creepy appearance.

"Who are you?" she exclaims.

"Fayth…" answered the being.

"You're confidence or trust in a person or thing?" repeated Aya with an eyebrow raised in confusion.

"No, Fayth…" affirms the being. "I am part of a race of entities from a world that no longer exists."

Aya looks at the person as if he or she suddenly sprouted demonic tentacles from his or her back. "How can a world no longer exist?"

"That's what happens when darkness overruns a world," explains the Fayth, putting up his/her hand to call up a series of images from its world as well as others.

_Zanarkand was destroyed a thousand years ago?_

_Allright, I promise._

_Don't say that as if this was my destiny!_

_You don't need a reason to help people._

_Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain, or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!_

_I wasn't pursuing Sephiroth; I was being summoned by him._

_You gotta do it then. You gotta live true to yourself._

_Right and wrong are not what separate us and our enemies. It's our different standpoints, our perspectives that separate us. Both sides blame one another. There's no good or bad side. Just two sides holding different views._

_How can you prove that we exist? Maybe we don't exist..._

_Power only breeds war... I wish I'd never been born._

_Yuna, I have to go... I'm sorry I couldn't show you Zanarkand... Goodbye!_

_... the people and the friends that we have lost, or the dreams that have faded... Never forget them._

_To be forgotten is worse than death._

_I don't know what the future holds... But I want to finish what I came here for._

Aya watches in awe and curiosity at the sights and sounds that appeared around her, in addition to feeling a strong sense of sorrow for the people who worked so hard to save their home world just to have it destroyed completely by darkness.

"Is there… anything that can be done… to restore their worlds?"

The Fayth gently shakes his/her head in response. "This Planet is the last remnant of this realm."

"But wait," spoke up Aya after seeing several images of the world she was on. "I was just there. It's still in one piece."

"Where you are standing right now is a timeless realm," explained the Fayth. "Even as we speak, time is moving fast on the outside. The door on that world has been opened."

"The door?" repeated the girl. "What door?"

"Within every world lays a secret door to other worlds," explained the Fayth. "As well as one to a world's heart."

"The world's heart?"

"It's life force, in essence," clarified the Fayth. "If the life force of a world is ever threatened or destroyed, that world falls apart and decomposes away."

"Then… what of the people who live on that world?" wonders Aya.

"A world's inhabitants are part of that world," answered the Fayth. "When the world dies, so do the beings that live on that world."

"That's terrible!" exclaims the girl. "You've got to get me back to the Planet!"

"And how will you stop the darkness?" demanded the Fayth. "Only the chosen one has the power to stop the darkness."

"Then let's go find the chosen one and stop this!"

"It's already too late for the Planet," exclaims the Fayth.

Aya yells out in frustration as she strikes the ground with a heavy blow with her spear. The Fayth did not flinch as the shockwave of the force rippled through the timeless realm.

"Why… am I here?" she growls in demand.

"To send a message," began the Fayth. "To the chosen one."

"What message?"

"That's for you to find on your own."

"The hell?" screamed Aya as fire began emitting from the blade of her spear and her eyes glows a bright red. "How am I supposed to send an unknown message to an unknown chosen one? How can I find the chosen one if I don't know where to look?"

The Fayth remained silent as the girl slowly calms herself down after realizing that getting angry won't get her anywhere.

"You mustn't worry," assures the Fayth. "Those who have perished on those lost worlds are reborn on others. They are not lost."

"But… they belong on the world they risked their lives to save," Aya utters sadly. "Those are their true homes."

"Send the message," said the Fayth. "And everything will be as you wish."

"The message?" repeated Aya. "A message that I have to find out for myself?"

The mystical being nods in affirmation. He/she holds up his/her hand and the teenager's body began glowing white with a new power.

"What did you do?" asks the girl.

"You now hold the power to open the Door to Light," explains the Fayth. "This will enable you to travel to other worlds to find the message and chosen one you seek."

Feeling a bit strange by the new ability, Aya instinctively holds up her hands and summons the portal of light with her will. She walks up to the portal, but turns around to see the Fayth one last time. Her eyes widen in surprise to see that the Fayth was nowhere to be found. With a sigh, she gazes down at the image below her one last time before entering the portal.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** If you're curious about the various quotes, here's a respective list of the characters who said them: Tidus, Cloud Strife, Squall Leonhart, Zidane Tribal, Auron, Cloud Strife, Yuffie Kisaragi, Squall Leonhart, Vivi Orniter, Celes Chere, Tidus (obviously), Yuna, Freya Crescent, and Garnet Alexandros. As for which Final Fantasy they came from, you're on your own there.


	9. Aya's Origins 6

**Aya's Origins – Chapter 6**

Traveling along the Corridors of Light, Aya couldn't help but feel a bit frightened. There were so many places to explore and she didn't know where to start looking to find the message she needed. Summoning the power of light within her, a portal opens up on her right. She wasn't sure of what to make of it, but something inside told her that her journey will begin with this door. Taking a deep breath, she proceeds through the portal to find the remains of a world that once was. Darkness had eaten up the poor planet, leaving only a singular pathway of floating ground before her. A heavy feeling weighs down her saddened heart as she began walking down the floating path, gazing around at the nothingness that surrounded her.

After a few minutes of walking, Aya comes upon a reclusive-looking cave that radiated great amounts of heat from within.

_Fire Cavern._

Putting a steady hand on the staff of her equipped spear, the teenage girl enters the mouth of the cavern and cautiously makes her way through the winding rocky corridor. As she descended deeper into the cave, she could feel the intense heat get hotter and hotter, making her sweat quite profusely.

A while later Aya finally makes to the deepest interior of the cave where a pit of fiercely burning fire roars lively. She was surprised to encounter absolutely nothing as she journeyed through the cavern, making her feel somewhat disappointed. She feels frustrated that she had come so far for nothing and was about to turn around to head back to the mouth of the cavern when the ground beneath her began shaking violently. She was unable to stabilize herself and falls to the ground with a great _umph_ as something was emerging from the huge fire pit. Aya watches as a fiery humanoid monster with long dark horns protruding from his bestial head come up from the intense flames with legs dangling and arms crossed proudly.

Aya's eyes widened fearfully as the fire beast lands on the ground before her, vibrating it hard.

"ROOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!"

This monster was unlike anything Aya ever encountered before. She tries clumsily to scurry away as the monster takes a step towards her.

"WHO DARES TRESPASS UPON MY TERRITORY?"

The teenage girl looks up at the creature in disbelief. _Did that just talk?_

"ANSWER ME!" roared the monster as flames whip around its brown furred body.

"I'm sorry!" exclaims Aya out of confusion and fear. "I didn't know any… thing was in here!"

"YOU DARE CALL ME A THING?" responded the monster angrily. "YOU DARE TO CALL ME, THE FIRE BEAST IFRIT, A THING?"

"My apologies!" cries out the girl, wrapping her arms over her head in a futile attempt to protect herself.

Ifrit glares down at the shuddering form below him, his claws curled up into tight fists. An inner desire wished to destroy the girl out of fear of being destroyed first, but something stops his thoughts from being put into action. Ifrit couldn't fathom why he would be so lenient to a foreigner when his world was nearly completely destroyed by one so long ago. Then it hit him; there was a scent about her. It was a familiar scent that he recognized but could not recall what.

"This scent…" growled the beast. "I have not smelled such a scent in 200 years…"

"What do you mean?" asks Aya, her hold on her head loosening up a little.

"SILENCE!" Ifrit roars back in response. "EVEN I, A LONG-LIVING CREATURE, CANNOT REMEMBER ALL THAT HAS HAPPENED IN MY LIFETIME."

"What… happened to your world?" the girl wonders meekly.

The Guardian Force creature gazes down at the girl upon hearing her question. "MY WORLD… WAS CONNECTED."

Aya's arms came down slowly. "Connected? To what?"

"That I know not," answered Ifrit. "It all happened so suddenly."

The monster sets himself down as Aya crosses her legs to sit in a better position to hear his story.

"Long ago, I formed a bond with a human called Squall Leonhart. I journeyed with him along with several other bestial beings such as myself known as Guardian Forces as well as his human comrades. We defeated a powerful sorceress from the future and all was well. Then, one day, the sky became eclipsed in everlasting night. So dark was the sky that no star could shine through it."

Ifrit stops to compose himself as Aya listens intently.

"A monster of great darkness unlike anything I've ever fought before came into our world. The other Guardian Forces and I fought fiercely with my human partner and his friends, but our combined strength was not enough to eliminate this dark entity. My human partner and his friends perished in the battle along with several of the Guardian Forces. I know not of what happened to them."

"That's… That's terrible," affirms Aya sadly.

"Though my world is destroyed, the bond I shared with Squall Leonhart remains," asserts Ifrit. "My heart tells me that somewhere he is reborn and is all right. Knowing that he is alive and well gives me the power to live on."

"I can find him and bring him back," declares the teenage girl, jumping up to her feet with her hand curled into a fist determinately. "And everyone else who lived on this world. I'll bring them all back."

"There is no need," assures Ifrit. "His life and the lives of others in this world have already begun anew in another. This world is no longer a part of their lives."

"But…"

"It's already too late for this world," asserts the Guardian Force. "It's time to move on."

Ifrit places a claw upon Aya's head and her body began to glow a fiery orange. The girl could sense her Fire magic becoming more powerful, turning into the stronger Fira spell and then the mastered Firaga spell. With that done, Ifrit takes his claw away and steps back towards the fire pit that is his home. Aya wanted to do more for the poor creature, but reluctantly understands that there is nothing more she could do for him. Summoning the door of light, she watches as Ifrit descends into the fire pit.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Stepping into the corridor of light, Aya couldn't help but feel completely useless. So many worlds lost and absolutely nothing she could do to fix them.

"Not everyone can be helped."

Aya whips around in surprise to find herself facing a young woman with short blonde hair. He eyes widen in a mix of emotions as she immediately recognizes the figure before her.

"Relena."

"Aya, I've never seen you so pathetic," asserts the young woman as she crosses her arms in disappointment. "I thought you were stronger than that."

"Hey!" exclaims Aya with a frown.

"It's true," adds Relena. "You can't even remember anything."

"I remember you and Ale," asserts Aya. "And Emyd, too."

"Is that all?"

"What?"

"That's all you remember?"

Aya was beginning to feel hot under the collar. "Yes."

"So you don't remember anything," sighs Relena. "Well, at least the important parts anyhow."

"And you don't consider yourself and the guys important?" retorts Aya.

"We're mere grains of sand in the hourglass of time compared to what you've forgotten," assures the young woman. She gives an exasperated sigh at the friend before her. "If you and _he_ didn't do something as foolish as you did back then, we wouldn't have this problem."

"Who are you talking about?" demanded Aya.

Without warning, Relena's trademark yellow-and-turquoise-colored _kunais_ appears in her blonde hands. Anger began burning within Aya's heart as she quickly realizes another fight is on her hand.

"I don't want to fight you!" she yells out angrily.

"Sorry, but it doesn't look like you have much of a choice here," exclaimed Relena as she shoots a couple of her _kunais_ at the girl.

Aya whips out Ferocity and skillfully deflects the dagger-like weapons. "I don't want to destroy you, too!"

Relena ignores her friend's cries as she shoots out several more _kunais_. "You have to! I'm nothing but a Heartless!"

"Heartless or not, you're still my friend!" Aya yells back as she deflected the _kunais_, sans for one which tears through her left arm.

"You don't understand!" responded Relena, summoning bolts of lightening down upon the girl. "If you don't destroy me then the darkness will become stronger!"

The teenage girl cries out in pain as the Thundaga spell weakens her further. Fueled by anger and pain, she aims the tip of Ferocity at her opponent and summons Firaga. The blazing fire flies out of the spear and hits Relena square in the chest, disabling her almost immediately.

Weak and wounded, Aya puts her spear away and rushes over to her fallen friend, despite sparks of pain cutting through her body. Slowly and steadily Relena's body began turning into black smoke and fade away, just like Ale did.

"What… What did you mean by the darkness becoming stronger?" Aya asks the young woman.

"As a Heartless, I can only seek the darkness and strengthen it," explains Relena weakly. "That's why we can't continue to live on. We don't want to be part of the evil that you will have to face later on."

"What evil?" exclaims Aya.

"You know it very well, Aya," asserts Relena. "You've fought it before."

"But, I don't remember."

"You will, Aya. You will."

In a blaze of black smoke Relena, or rather her Heartless, was no more. More questions plagued Aya's mind than ever before as she sought to figure out what the heck is going on. Standing up to her feet, she sees another portal open up in the corridor of light.

_Heartless… Nobody… Darkness… Light… Twilight…There's so much that I don't understand…_

------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** To be continued… MUCH later.


	10. Aya's Origins 7

**A/N:** I've never played Final Fantasy IX so forgive me if I got the details of the Iifa Tree wrong.

By the way, his name is pronounced EH-mid. :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

**Aya's Origins – Chapter 7**

_The Iifa Tree…_

A small decomposing root breaks easily under Aya's shoes as she navigated her way through a giant tangled web of dead and deteriorating roots and branches. Of course, it wouldn't be so much of a problem if it wasn't for the obvious fact that she was trudging through a huge tree. So huge that it could be a world of its own.

"Whoa!"

The teenage girl lands on a mangled mess of smaller roots after getting her shoe caught in a hidden branch, breaking through the thick bush and landing squarely on the barren ground underneath. Groaning in pain, she turns to discover the left leg of her pants cut open, a slash of blood oozing through the fresh wound of her leg. She lets out a irritated cursing and climbs onto a stable root that was wide enough to support her entire body. Setting herself steady, she pulls up her injured leg to roll up the pant leg and inspect it. The half-inch wide jagged cut was bleeding profusely, staining the deep blue of her jean pants. Not wanting to use up any part of her pants, Aya decides instead to roll out the right sleeve of her jean jacket and rips off a third of it. She then uses Ferocity's blade to cut the sleeve lengthwise, giving her a long rectangle of fabric to work with.

_Curaga._

Aya spins her head around upon hearing that. "Who's there?"

No answer.

The girl couldn't figure out where the voice came from, nor could she narrow down what the voice could have belonged to. Ever since she acquired the ability to use Fire magic, this same voice kept sounding out every often or so. Each time she felt herself and her magic powers become stronger and stronger.

"Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Graviga…" Aya spoke out, recalling the most recent magic list in her mind. "And now, Curaga. This is getting annoying. How the heck am I getting these spells?"

Pointing Ferocity over her left leg, she summons Blizzaga to create a crystal of ice. Soon after the ice formed, she then calls out Firaga and melts the ice over her leg. A sharp hiss of breath was sucked through clenched teeth as the resulting cascade of water washes over her wound. Once cleaned, she places a hand over the wound and initiates Curaga. The spell manages to stop the bleeding but she still needed to cover it up. Taking the sleeve fabric, Aya proceeds to tourniquet the remaining exposed flesh, reduced now to a simple red line. With that done, she rolls up what was left of the sleeve on the jacket to make it match the other rolled up sleeve.

Aya takes a deep breath and stands herself up on the huge root she was sitting on. Pain shot up her injured leg as she did so, causing her to wince at the intense feeling.

"Man," she groans as she uses her spear to support herself. "It still hurts."

Slowly and steadily Aya makes her way through the sea of giant tree roots, heading for the decrepit center where the giant tree itself stood, albeit dead for who knows how long. A heavy mist hung in the air between the top of the Iifa Tree and the roots below, creating a humid aura about the gargantuan plant. As Aya stumbles along, she gazes up at the still-attached branches of the tree the closer she got to the trunk, wondering what great event took place so long ago. The world in which it resided was long gone, replaced by a barren landscape surrounded by darkness.

Upon getting within fifty meters of the tree trunk, Aya could hear the sounds of sorrowful whimpering through the densely laid tree roots before her. Supporting most of her weight on her good right leg, she takes the staff of Ferocity in both hands and aims its sharp blade at the center of the wall of roots before her.

"Firaga!"

In a blaze of fire, the roots burned away, revealing a clear path to the trunk of the giant tree. Using her spear as a walking stick once again, Aya saunters through the path, the sound of crying getting louder and louder as she nears the tree itself. It wasn't until she entered a clearing when she finally notices a dark figure sitting huddled near the base of the tree. Curious as she was, Aya cautiously approaches the individual whom she deemed to be a young man from the sound of his voice.

"Are you all right?"

The person was startled by the girl's presence as he whips around to face her. Aya's eyes went wide to discover that the crying individual was very familiar indeed.

"Emyd?" she takes a step forward towards him. "Is it really you?"

"You've got to get out of here, Aya," the young man responds with panic in his tone. "I can't… I can't control it as well as Ale and Relena."

"Wha… What are you talking about?"

She takes another step forward.

"Don't!" Emyd cries out, taking a step backwards towards the tree behind him. "Please, don't come any closer, Aya. I don't want to hurt you."

"Why would you hurt me?" Aya asks, her left leg throbbing slightly from the wound. "You're a Heartless, too, aren't you?"

The young blonde-haired man hangs his head as he wraps his arms around his chest, his body shuddering slightly. "Yes, I am. That's why you've got to stay away from me."

"But why?"

"Because Heartless hunger for the hearts of others. It's an uncontrollable urge."

"But… Ale and Relena never tried to take my heart."

"That's because they're stronger than me. They can control the darkness within them better than I can." Emyd looks up at his friend with a mixture of fear and concern in his saddening eyes. "The darkness within me is forcing me to take your heart. I don't want to."

"Then don't let it!" cried out Aya. "You can do it, Emyd. Fight it with everything you've got."

"I've _been_ fighting it, Aya," the young man whimpers in response. "I can't beat it."

"Emyd…"

Suddenly, her friend began groaning in pain and cries out in fear. Shadows crept all around him, slowly engulfing him inch by inch. The teenage girl was startled by the occurrence, staggering back away from him.

"What… What's happening? Emyd!"

"Anti-form."

"What?"

"Heartless like Ale, Relena, and me have the power of Anti-form," began Emyd as the lower half of his body became deep black. "It turns us into the Heartless monsters we truly are when someone with a heart is nearby. It's uncontrollable."

"No…" Aya breaths in shock at the sight before her. "How could this happen? Why are you all Heartless?"

"You already know the answer to that, Aya," replied Emyd, the darkness now encompassing two-thirds of his body.

The girl watches helplessly as another of her closest friends was slowly being taken over by darkness. She knew deep down in her heart that another fight was on hand, but she wasn't sure that she would survive this one as easily as she did with her other friends. She was still wounded from her fall and the thought of having to fight a friend who was becoming one with darkness seemed to weaken her chances to fight back even further. Within minutes she was now standing before a being of pure darkness with bright yellow eyes peering from the soulless figure. She could see that the creature still retained the shape of her friend, making it hard for her to want to fight it.

_It's not your friend anymore._

The now dark shadow that was Emyd lashes out quickly, striking with fingers that are now claws. Aya barely managed to dodge the attack, the sharp digits just grazing her jacket. She lands a few feet away, accidentally using her wounded leg to end the leap. She curses instantly as pain shot up her leg. Before she knew what was happening, the dark Emyd was jumping at her again with claws outstretched. Whipping Ferocity around, Aya slashes the being away, sending him flying backwards into a wall of dense roots. Catching a second wind, Emyd dashes out of the pile of dead roots and comes at the girl on all fours. Now with an obvious limp due to her quick reaction, Aya tries to deflect the shadow's attacks with Ferocity only to have it knocked out of her hands. Taking advantage of the situation Emyd unleashes a fury of slashes upon the girl with the final attack sending her flying back deep into another wall of roots. Aya yells out in pain as broken branches cut her up during flight, memories flashing within closed eyes as she flew.

_Darkness falls._

_No, not darkness. Evil._

_Must protect…_

_Key…Use the Key to close the doors._

Groaning, she summons up the last of her magic powers to launch a Thundaga strike upon the quickly approaching shadow Emyd. The lightening stunned the yellow-eyed creature, giving Aya enough time to go look for her spear.

_Help me escape…_

_For all the light in the heart of a ten-year-old…Within lies a hero…_

_Within… Within…_

Digging through some more dead roots and fallen branches, Aya catches a glimpse of the glinting metal of Ferocity.

_In the same room, suddenly it's a real planet..._

_Hug it and let's go…_

_Stay… Stay and sleep…_

_Here it's all in the light…_

_Was it in the darkness?..._

She manages to grab hold of the spear's staff before she felt something grab hold of her right ankle.

_Of course, he was evil…_

_See… See where he walks… It's moving…_

_He won't call me…_

_Hug me…_

_Miss the darkness, it must be the end…_

_Ascension there…_

_For you see, powerfully… Yours is bright and now missing…_

_It's me…_

_Yeah, we know that…_

Before Aya could even think, Emyd drags her out of the thick pile of dead roots by her leg and throws her into the trunk of the Iifa Tree hard.

_He's moving…_

_Is it hard to be dark?..._

_Help me, help me…_

_Let me see…_

_He believes then…_

_Battle bruises…_

The girl cries out in intense pain as her back cracks against the loosened bark of the tree. She falls to the ground grimacing from the aches that now dotted her body. Looking up with one eye, she could see Emyd running at her on all fours again like a feral predator closing in on its prey.

_It won't call me… Oh, I missed that call…_

_To the other, it was me…_

_One there, shot… That doesn't help…_

_Let your mind go crying now…_

_We found they were weak…_

_He was, obviously…_

_He needs that greed…_

With a mighty leap, Emyd comes down on Aya with dark claws outstretched and aimed for her throat, fully prepared to rip her to shreds. The girl looks up at her opponent and fidgets around quickly to find her spear.

_Hug it and let's go…_

_Stay… Stay and sleep… Feel it more every night…_

_Wasn't he the darkness?_

Just when Emyd was upon her, Aya manages to grab hold of Ferocity and in the blink of an eye, the shadow being had fallen into the weapon. Red-orange eyes gaze into glowing yellow ones as the latter slowly lost its lively intensity. Soon Aya was face-to-face with her old friend, the darkness faded away from his body. However, his wound proves fatal as black smoke evaporated from his stomach where Ferocity pierced right through him.

"Thank you… Aya…"

With his last breath, Emyd completely fades away, leaving the girl to cry tears of sadness for the sorrowful fate of her beloved friends.

------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** Hmm, wonder how much more of Aya's lost past will she encounter next? Has anyone noticed the connections yet?


	11. Aya's Origins 8

**Aya's Origins – Chapter 8**

Aya sat on the ground, her head lost in a miasma of confusion and memories. She was still in the area of the Iifa Tree where she had just destroyed another of her close friends. Looking down at her hands, she wonders how many more lives will soil her destructive palms. Right beside her lay Ferocity, clean of any signs of death. Aya reaches a hand out for it, but hesitates out of fear that she would have to call upon its strength once again.

"… I… I don't want to fight anymore…"

She closes her eyes and slowly more memories came drifting back to her. She was back in a beautiful world she doesn't recall, where she was with Ale, Relena, and Emyd. They were all chatting away, but Aya couldn't hear the conversation at all. In an act of utter friendliness, Ale grabs Aya in a headlock and gives her a noogie while everyone including her laugh out at the spectacle. As they walked through an unknown town, Aya could see people old and young going about their business. Everyone seemed to coexist in harmony without a care in the world.

_Aya…_

Suddenly, Aya was thrust into a grassy hill that overlooked the field she had seen in another memory, except Ale, Relena, and Emyd weren't with her anymore. Instead she was all alone while the figure of a younger male stood before her with his back facing her. Immediately the spiky brown hair struck a chord in her mind, but she was unable to dredge up any knowledge of knowing what his name is. Curious, Aya tries to ask the boy who he was, but no sound passes through her silent lips. However, the boy seemed to be able to hear what she wanted to ask and turns to look at her. At the sight of his sky blue eyes Aya felt herself gasp but there was still no sound to be heard.

_You're…_

Almost immediately, Aya was thrusted back into reality and she opens her eyes with a start. She brings a hand up to her head as she tries to remember who it was she saw in her lost but not forgotten memories. She groans in frustration when nothing comes up. Glancing over at her spear again, she reluctantly picks it up and gets up to her feet despite the pain in her leg, which had reopened up a bit thanks to the fight with Emyd.

_Don't be afraid. Keep your light burning strong._

"But I don't want to fight any more of my friends."

_The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes. But don't be afraid. Don't forget… You hold the mightiest weapon of all._

"The mightiest weapon of all?"

Aya looks down at her spear, but she had a really good feeling that it wasn't the weapon the mysterious voice was referring to. Sheathing Ferocity onto her back, the teenage girl calls upon the light within to summon the Door to Light once again. As she began walking through the portal of light, she could feel someone watching her from behind. However, when she turned around, there was no one to be found. Seeing that there was nothing more to be done in that lost world, Aya turns back to the portal and walks through it. As soon as the Door to Light disappeared, a mysterious figure emerges from a dense group of roots and gazes over where the portal used to be. The figure brushes some of his shoulder-length spiky light blue hair away from his x-shaped-scarred face as he looked on.

"You have much to do, Aya," he exclaims nonchalantly. "And even more to recall. I hope you acquire your memories of me by the time we meet up face to face."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Trudging through the corridors of light, Aya saw another portal open up and began approaching it. She was only able to make out the sight of a glowing garden of flowers surrounded by mountainous rocks when she suddenly felt the ground swallow her up. She cries out in surprise as she fell through a deep dark empty space where she couldn't even see her hands in front of her eyes. After falling for what seemed like an eternity, the teenage girl finally ends up on solid ground. Solid ground that felt like… grass?

Aya opens her eyes to find herself in a wide empty field of grass with trees and bushes scattered about. Standing up, she could see that the sun was setting, the sky a blend of warm and cool colors. Looking about her, she can spot pathways that were carved very far apart from each other. She seeks out one that was closest to her, which was concealed almost completely by trees and bushes. Not one to let something meager as forestry stop her, Aya maneuvers through the dense foliage to literally bump into someone walking by.

"Oomph!"

Both went crashing down to the ground flat on their backs. When Aya manages to sit herself up, while rubbing her sore nose, she soon discovers that she had bumped into some guy who had silvery short hair and wearing an odd black robe. Standing not far from him was another figure, albeit very much shorter than the young man and donning large round things on its head, which Aya figured to be ears. The other character wore a shorter and smaller version of the outfit the young man was wearing, though the hood on its version had extensions to fit its odd ears.

"Uh, sorry about that," the teenage girl apologizes as the three of them stood up.

"Where… did _you_ come from?" wondered the teenage boy, who still seemed somewhat dazed by the sudden interruption.

"Uh, somewhere far," answered Aya uncertainly. "Oh, and my name's Aya. Aya Yurika, archaeology and paleontology extraordinaire!"

The boy and the mouse-like being simply stare at her as if she was utterly out of her little mind. Laughing nervously, Aya scratches the back of her head.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Aya," exclaimed the short mouse-like figure happily. "I'm King Mickey, but you can call me Mickey."

"King, huh?" repeated Aya. "Well, since you're apparently royalty, you wouldn't mind if I refer to you as Your Majesty?"

"Ha ha, that'd be fine as well," chuckled Mickey in response.

The teenage girl then turns to the boy next to Mickey. "And how about you? Got a name?"

"Riku," replied the teenage boy.

"Nice to meet you, Riku and your majesty," complimented the girl. "Where are you guys headed for?"

Riku just shrugs in response. "We're going wherever the path takes us."

"Heh, sounds like _my_ travel plans," chuckles Aya. "So, you guys in some sort of club or something?"

At first, Riku and Mickey didn't know what the girl was talking about until she indicates their complementing outfits.

"Oh no, we're not in any sort of organization or nothin'," replies Mickey. "We just picked these up somewhere, that's all."

Aya raises an eyebrow at the mouse king skeptically, thinking that there was more to that than she heard. "Interesting."

"Well, we'd better be on our way," spoke up Riku. "We're kind of looking for some friends of ours."

"Mind if I tag along for a bit?" suggested the teenage girl. "I'm kind of looking for someone, too."

"I don't see why not," notes Mickey. He looks up at Riku, who nods his agreement.

In mere moments the trio was on their way to apparently nowhere, just going where the path takes them. A few minutes into the journey, Aya asks Riku and Mickey who they were looking for.

"My best friend," answered Riku rather solemnly. "I… did some things that weren't exactly nice to do to a friend. I want to make things up to him."

His words struck a chord in Aya, who began remembering having to destroy her Heartless-turned friends. "I did some bad things of my own as well. There's so many things that I don't understand." She turns to look at the two beside her. "Hey, have you guys ever heard of the Heartless?"

At the sound of that particular term, Mickey and Riku began filling the girl in on what the Heartless were. Their connection to someone named Ansem, their ability to take the hearts of others and the hearts of worlds. Aya felt enlightened by their explanation, their answers giving her much insight on what she had encountered during her journey. Hoping that they may give her hints about her goal, she asks if they knew anyone who used a particularly unique weapon.

"Are you talking about the Keyblade?" wondered Mickey.

"The Keyblade?" repeated Aya, showing that she didn't understand.

"The Keyblade is a weapon that the Heartless fear most, because it is born of light," answered Riku. "It's special in that it chooses its master. Mickey here can wield a Keyblade… and so can my best friend…"

Upon mentioning his best friend, Aya could feel a sadness surround him. Curious to learn about this Keyblade master, she asks him to tell her more about his friend. With a forced smile and reluctant sigh, Riku tells Aya about Sora. How he used the Keyblade to lock worlds and prevent Heartless from destroying them; how he fought to find him and their other friend, Kairi; how he along with Riku and Mickey closed the door to Kingdom Hearts and thereby locking themselves in the realm of darkness.

Aya was truly fascinated by Riku's story, feeling determined to find this Sora and see the Keyblade itself. _A chosen one. Could Sora be the one I'm sent to find? But I still have to seek the message I need to give to him. Well, at least I know **who** I'm looking for._

The time the three of them spent together passed by very quickly and before long the trio found themselves at an empty crossroad. Disappointed that their time had already ended, Aya reluctantly says her farewell to the two unique individuals.

"I hope we meet again," she exclaims with a smile. "It was really nice meeting you guys."

"Aww, don't worry," assures Mickey with a smile of his own. "I'm sure we'll meet again. Just believe that we will."

With that said, Aya splits up from Riku and Mickey and heads down a different road. She became lost in her thoughts as she walked along, a smile still plastered on her face.

"Have a little faith and everything will be all right," she exclaims confidently, pausing once she was completely alone on her own path. "I will meet my friends again as well as get my all of my memories back. If I just believe, then things will turn out okay in the end."

Just then, a bright light shined before her, its brilliance forcing her to shield her eyes with her arms. When the light had faded away, a new weapon remained floating before her, sparkles of light falling from its form. Wondering what it could be, Aya cautiously reaches out with her right hand and grabs hold of the weapon, which turns out to be a green-themed ninja sword in its own sheath. Holding the weapon in both hands, she slowly slides out the blade and gasps in awe of its completely smooth, clean, and reflective surface. Sliding the sword back into its sheath, Aya straps the new weapon around her hips and looks up at a sunrise over the horizon before her.

"Ferocity and Faith," she exclaims with a confident smile. "With them by my side and light in my heart, I have nothing to fear. Keyblade master, here I come!"

Pushing off on her feet, Aya began running down her path and into the horizon.

**The End… for now…**

------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** FINALLY! Aya's origins story is done! (ish happy!!!) Cookie points to anyone who can pinpoint whose Heartless has an x-shaped scar. :)


	12. The Road Less Traveled 1

_After returning everyone's stuff, Aya heads for Hollow Bastion to help out with the newly implemented restoration efforts as more of her lost past comes to haunt her._

**

* * *

**

**The Road Less Traveled – Chapter 1**

Aya sat inside the Gepetto in silence as the transport Gummi Ship made its way towards Hollow Bastion. Shortly after she had returned everyone's stuff back in Traverse Town, Sora, Donald, and Goofy headed off in their Gummi Ship, Excalibur, to find their lost friends. She recalls their last moments together before they went their separate ways.

--------------

"It was really nice to meet you, Aya," exclaimed Sora with a cheerful smile on his face. "Even though you took my keychains, at least you gave them back."

"Heh, guess I won't be getting any special souvenirs from you or anyone else here," chuckles Aya in return.

"And we plan to keep it that way," snorted Donald with a frown.

"Hey, I promised, didn't I?" asserted the girl.

"Sure did," agreed Goofy with a grin. "And I believe you'll keep that promise, too."

"Gee, thanks Goofy," responded Aya. "At least someone believes in me."

"Humph," exclaimed Donald as he crosses his arms skeptically.

"Well, we've got to get going now," spoke up Sora with a sigh. "I promised someone that I'd find Riku and come home with him."

"You'll find him and the king," assures Aya with a smile. "I'm sure of it."

"Thanks, Aya," Sora responds half-heartedly.

"Come on, now. Have a little faith," Aya chirps as she delivers a gently punch to the boy's shoulder. "Where there's a will, there most definitely is a way."

Sora gives an affirmative nod. "So, what are you going to do now?"

"Aerith told me that she and the others are moving people from here to Hollow Bastion to start restoring it," answers Aya. "I'm going to go with them and help out a bit."

"Good luck with that, Aya," said Goofy.

"Thanks," replies Aya. "And good luck finding your friends, too."

"Thanks," replies Sora as he, Donald, and Goofy began to make their way to Excalibur and wave goodbye. "I hope we meet again, Aya."

"I hope so, too," added Aya as she waved back and headed for the Gepetto where many people were gathering to be bused to Hollow Bastion.

--------------

A smile forms upon Aya's face as she recalled the three heroes in her mind. Then they were replaced with images of three other important people.

_Relena… Emyd… Ale…_

A guilty feeling tugged at her heart as she saw their faces. She places a hand over her heart as she sought to understand the Heartless origins surrounding her encounters. She tries to understand why her friends ended up the way they did.

"When someone becomes a Heartless, he or she loses all free will and succumbs to the instincts of a Heartless," Aya spoke quietly to herself as she tries to recall the Ansem Reports Sora had let her see. "Why was it that Relena, Emyd, and Ale all looked human while others became monsters?"

Suddenly, her heart felt as if it was being pressurized. Groaning in pain, she closes her eyes and puts both hands over her chest in an effort to relieve the pressure, but her efforts failed. As her heart continued to pressurize, images began flashing in the darkness of her mind. She saw Sora pierce his chest with a dark Keyblade and become a Heartless. As soon as she saw that, the scene faded away, but not before she managed to catch a glimpse of a dark-skinned man with long white hair.

When the pain finally subsided, Aya opens her eyes to find herself on the floor of the sitting room she was in. She looks up to find people looking down at her in curiosity and worry. She could hear the voice of someone trying to push through the crowd.

"Now, now, move aside."

A short woman in a pale-colored robe with white hair appears before her with a worried look on her face.

"Oh dear, what has happened here?" she exclaims gently. She bends down to examine Aya. "I'm the Fairy Godmother and here to help. What happened to you?"

"I'm sorry, I just fainted; that's all," assures Aya as she slowly gets up. "Must be from not sleeping enough."

"Ah, I see," responded Fairy Godmother. She waves her wand and casts the Curaga spell upon the girl. "I'll be sure to tell Merlin and the others to let you rest awhile before you start any sort of work."

Aya saunters back to her bench-like cushioned seat and sits down. "Thanks for the help."

"It was my pleasure," affirms Fairy Godmother as she poofs out of sight.

Everyone else in the room went back to their seats and the Gummi Ship went on without a hitch. Aya couldn't stop thinking about what she just saw in her spontaneous vision.

"Sora was a Heartless?" she exclaims quietly to herself. She puts a hand up to her head and looks down at the floor. "And what about that other guy? He had a Heartless emblem on his chest. Does that mean he was a Heartless, too?" She closes her eyes and recalls images of her three lost friends. "They probably had a Heartless emblem on their chests, too, but were covered by their shirts. What does it all mean?"

_When the heart casts off the flesh, where does the body go?_

_Heart and soul are separate, and the spirit remains in the body. But can we assume that the leftover body and soul perish?_

_Certainly when the heart changes into a Heartless the body disappears._

_However, that is only this world's story; in another world, mightn't they change forms like the Heartless and exist there?_

_If we take that to be the case, there must be a you other than yourself existing somewhere._

_An existence neither of darkness nor of light.__  
__An in-between existence.__  
__Cast off by the heart, a mere shell, one who begrudges both the darkness and the light._

_This mystery cannot be easily resolved.__  
__The relationship between the heart and the flesh is a complex one._

_But since we exist here, they cannot be termed as existent.__  
__Therefore I shall call them..._

_"The non-existent ones."_

This particular Ansem Report kept circulating over and over in Aya's head as she sought to understand the meaning behind it.

"The non-existent ones," repeated Aya. "… Nobodies… The message…"

Her head suddenly perks up. "Oh, yeah; the message. Maybe if I learn more about the Heartless and the Nobodies, I'll be able to find the message I'm supposed to give to Sora."

The ship began vibrating as the Gepetto landed on Hollow Bastion at long last. With a sigh, Aya straps on Ferocity and Faith and heads out the door to a new world.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** Allright, I know what you're thinking. Why didn't Aya simply use the Door to Light to get to Hollow Bastion? Well, if she had used the Door to Light instead of going on a Gummi Ship, then ---- would've ---- that Aya --- - ---------- to --- and then that would've spoiled the plot of Aya's story for you. :)


	13. The Road Less Traveled 2

**A/N:** Just to let you know, his name is pronounced like "ice" and the other's DROO-low. I'll let you figure out how to say the last name on your own.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

**The Road Less Traveled – Chapter 2**

Stepping out of the Gepetto's doors, Aya was perplexed at the sight of a vast rocky blue land wet with puddles and splotches of water. Standing in the near center of the world was a peach-colored castle decorated with a huge Heartless emblem smack dab in the center and littered with electric lifts all over the place. All around the base of the castle, little houses and shops were being constructed as a little town slowly came into existence.

A little lost on what was going on, Aya scans the area and luckily finds Yuffie helping people find something to do.

"Hey, Yuffie!" Aya yells out and waves.

"Hi Aya!" the ninja girl waves back.

Aya makes her way to the girl, swimming through the sea of people. "Hey, what's going on here?"

"What do you mean?" wonders Yuffie.

"Everything's… wet."

"Oh, that. Well, it's kind of weird, really."

"How weird?"

"This world used to be completely covered in water, but after Sora, Donald, and Goofy defeated Ansem, the ocean just dried up."

"Just dried up?"

"Yep. All gone."

One of Aya's eyebrows went up in response. How could a whole ocean just suddenly dry up? Aya could sense something was missing, but at the moment she didn't know where to start searching to find the answers.

"So, where should I go?" she asks Yuffie.

"Um, you could help out Leon and Aerith," suggested the ninja girl. She points up towards the peachy castle. "They're in there in the library. Just go in and head for the door on the left."

"Okay," replied Aya and she headed towards the castle.

On the way, a shadowy figure stood silently up on a rocky cliff. Dressed in a hooded black robe, the figure watched as Aya came towards the castle entrance where a makeshift set of stairs carved into the rocky foundation led up to the doors. Soon another hooded figure came through a Door to Darkness portal and joined the other.

"So she came here after all," spoke up the new figure.

"I figured so," replied the first, removing the hood to reveal shoulder-length spiky light blue hair. "She's not the Heart of Light for nothing."

"Whatever you say, Ais," replied the other figure.

"Aren't you supposed to be looking for the Heart of Darkness?" said Ais as he turns to look at his comrade with an x-scarred face.

"Where the heck am I supposed to look?" argued the other, face-covered figure. "You only got lucky finding the Heart of Light because you followed one of her Heartless friends."

"Why don't you stop complaining and try figuring out a way to find the Heart of Darkness, Drulo?" Ais glared at the hooded person.

"Humph," scoffed the hooded figure as he takes off his hood and shows his skin-tight layer of short blonde hair. "Kind of hard to find a shadow in the darkness."

"Then go ask Lumarai for help then," suggests Ais.

"Since when did you start making jokes?" wondered Drulo, crossing his arms. "Lumarai never helps anyone but himself."

Ais breathes an irritated sigh as he approaches Drulo. "Why are you here, really?"

"They're on the move," the other man now spoke with an ominously serious tone. "The Chasers."

A deep frown forms on Ais' x-scarred face. "Are they coming here?"

"I don't think so," affirms Drulo. "Aya's existence is doing well to cover up the Heart of Light and I imagine the same is for the Heart of Darkness. However…"

"What is it?"

"I think they realize that the Keyblade Master is the key."

If Ais had a heart, this was when it would start beating nervously. "Then it would seem that we're going to have to have a change in plans as well."

"What do you mean?" wonders Drulo.

"We need to acquire the Heart of Light now," clarified Ais.

"But what about the Heart of Darkness?" spoke up Drulo.

"We can worry about that later," assured Ais. "If we can just have one of the Lost Two in our possession, then that's good enough. At the very least, we will have an advantage over the Chasers."

"Hmm, I see," responded Drulo. Placing his hand behind him, Drulo summons the Door to Darkness. "I'll go inform Lumarai right away."

In mere minutes, Drulo was gone, leaving Ais all alone once again. The lone man turns his attention back to Aya, who had just gone through the doors of the castle.

"We will be meeting up sooner than I expected, Aya," Ais exclaims with a smile.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aerith was looking at a book when she saw a familiar face enter the library.

"Aya!" she exclaims happily. "When did you get here?"

"A few minutes ago," answered the black-haired teenage girl. "So, anything for me to do here?"

"You can start by checking out the shelves over here!"

Aya looks around to find the source of the new voice, but all she could find was Aerith. "Leon? Where are you?"

"Over here!"

The girl follows the sound of the voice and manages to find her way to the stoic man. Upon seeing her, Leon tightens the strap on his Gunblade before crossing his arms in front of him. Aya notices the subtle actions and frowns in response.

"I told you I won't steal your guys' stuff anymore," she reiterates firmly.

"Just checking," assures Leon with a slight smirk. He then points to a wall of books opposite of him. "There are some books that need to be sorted out. Just organize all the related stuff together and tell either Aerith or me if you find anything that mentions Heartless or darkness."

"Got ya," affirms Aya as she goes over to where Leon was pointing and began pulling out books to look at them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Time passed by as Aya pulled out one book after another and scouring through each and every one of them in hopes of finding something that might answer the questions that plague her mind. With a sigh, she picks up one of the last few books on her assigned wall and notices a couple of pieces of paper sticking out of the hardcover text. Curious, she pulls out the papers and looks at the titles on them.

"Ansem Report #1 and #7?"

Aya became confused upon reading the titles of the papers. _But Sora has all of the Ansem Reports. What are two of them doing here?_

She recalls the image of Ansem in her memory flashes back in the Gummi Ship and shakes her head in response.

"Something doesn't add up here," she exclaims.

Straightening out the crumpled parts of the reports, Aya began reading them and soon discovers that these were entirely different reports from the ones Sora had.

"What does this mean?" she wonders aloud. "Is there _two_ Ansems? One of them has to be a fake. But if that's the case, then what happened to the real Ansem? And which reports are written by the fake and which are written by the real one?"

Still looking at the reports, Aya turns to face Leon. "Hey Leon, I think I fou—"

Looking up from the reports, the teenage girl soon discovers that the man had disappeared. Surprised by the quiet retreat, Aya scans the library and finds that both Aerith and Leon were nowhere to be found. Feeling rather annoyed, she puts her hands on her hips and frowns.

"Least they could do was tell me if they were leaving," she grumbles as she heads for the door to the entrance hall with reports still in hand.

Midway to the door, Aya senses another presence in the library and looks up to see a black robe-wearing figure standing on the second floor. She couldn't tell whether the figure was male or female because the hood was pulled over the face, encasing all identity within the shadows.

"Who are you?" she asks. "Did Aerith or Leon send you here to tell me something?"

The person remained silent as it seemed to look straight down at the girl. Aya was getting more irritated by the minute.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" she shouts upsettingly. "An answer would be nice!"

Without a word, the mysterious person turns around and heads out the second floor door to the entrance hall. Somewhat curious and more so mad at the rudeness of the person, Aya folds up the reports and places them into her pocket before running after him into the entrance hall where the person jumped down to the first floor and went out the door. Jumping off the levitating platforms, Aya lands on the carpeting of the first floor and races out the door after the person. Once outside, she sees the person go down the lift to the basements below. Running after the person, she waits for the used lift to come back up before going on it herself. At the bottom, she sees the hooded person standing high on top of the ice-like rock platforms and jumps up to him.

"Look, if you don't say something then I'm going to get pretty mad," she warns him as she wraps her right hand around the staff of Ferocity. "And you don't want to see me when I'm mad."

"Actually, I do."

Aya's eye went wide with surprise as the person pulls back the hood to reveal his shoulder-length spiky light blue hair and x-scarred face.

"Who are you?" demanded Aya, whipping out her spear.

"Why don't you try looking through your heart's memories?" suggested Ais with a smile. "Because I don't exist in yours."

"What are you talking about?" demanded Aya as she goes into an attack position.

"The heart that you possess does not belong to you," explained Ais. "Unknown to its protector, the perfect hiding place for the Heart of Light."

"Wha…" Aya nearly gasps at the sound of the man's words. "What do you mean my heart doesn't belong to me?"

"You were merely reborn to house a very important heart," continues Ais. "Well, half of a very important heart, anyways."

"What?" exclaimed the teenage girl. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "No way! This is _my_ heart!"

Pushing off the ground with all her might, Aya dashes at the man with spear tip aimed straight for his chest. Moving quickly, Ais dodges the attack, knowing full well what happens to a Heartless when struck in location of the heart. However, he didn't account for the girl's hidden weapon which instantly rushed out and nicks him in the arm. Turning around, Aya faces the man with spear and sword in both hands.

"Clever little insect," he groans. "I will have your heart and you cannot stop me."

Ais summons a huge blue strangely-shaped double-edge sword to his hand and, with one mighty swing, sends a strong gust blowing at the girl. Not wanting to get blown off the platform, Aya digs Ferocity's spear-point into the ground and holds onto the staff for support. In the blink of an eye, Ais was beside her and the girl was just barely able to block his attack with Faith. She yanks Ferocity out of the ground and swings its tip at the man, who immediately jumps back to avoid the spear's blade. Now with some distance between them, Ais proceeds to enlarge his berserker weapon and attack the girl from above using a sort of stomping-slicing attack. Unsure of how to deflect such an onslaught, Aya could do nothing to defend herself from the slashes. She lands on the ground greatly injured and groans in intense pain as she gets up to her feet.

With his weapon back to its original size, Ais stands victorious before the girl.

"Surrender and I'll make it quick and painless," he tells her as he rests his weapon the ground with his hand still on the handle.

"Somehow I doubt that," groans Aya as she struggles to stay on her feet.

"Humph," Ais scoffs in response. "Suit yourself."

As the man prepares to deliver the final blow, a warmth began radiating from deep within Aya's heart. Ais' eyes went wide with surprise as he saw a glowing light grow from within the girl.

"What is this?" he exclaims.

Aya's eyes suddenly went from her normal red-orange irises to a deep blue pigment as she raises her sword up, which was glowing with a shining light. The weapon suddenly changes itself into a green-themed keychained Keyblade and shoots a beam of light high into the air.

"Give me strength!"

From a small spark of light in the sky, a mighty blue four-winged dragon shot down and flew up in front of the girl. Light energy quickly began gathering up in its mouth as the dragon prepares to launch its Sky Light attack. There was absolutely nothing Ais could do except react by placing his now meager berserker sword in front of him in a futile attempt to deflect the oncoming attack. With a mighty roar, Kairo unleashes a huge beam of light energy from his mouth and completely engulfs the man within its light. The last thing Ais saw before he completely dissolved away was Aya's blue eyes reverting back to its original red-orange color behind the dragon.

As soon as the light beam dissipated, Kairo fades away in sparkles of light and Aya falls to the ground, weak and exhausted.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** One Heartless down, two more to go.


	14. The Road Less Traveled 3

**The Road Less Traveled – Chapter 3**

"Do you think she'll make it?"

"I don't know. She's hurt pretty badly."

"Should I go find Merlin, then?"

"I think that would be a good idea."

Aya could hear two voices through the darkness of her closed eyes. She recognized one of them as belonging to Aerith, but she wasn't so sure about the other voice. Groaning, she tries to open her eyes as she gets up. A spark of pain shot through her body, sending her lying back down on something soft.

"Aya, don't strain yourself!"

The teenage girl forces her eyes open to see Aerith's familiar face looking at her. "What… happened?"

"Tifa found you lying unconscious in the basement area," explains the brunette. "What were you doing down there anyways?"

"Tifa?" exclaims Aya weakly.

As if on cue, a brown-haired young woman wearing a white tank top and a black miniskirt comes up from behind Aerith and introduces herself.

"Hi, I'm Tifa," she says. "I saw a beam of light coming from the basement area and when I took the lift down, I saw you lying on one of the rock platforms."

Tifa notices the teenage girl looking down at her hands and then the floor around the bed she was in. "Oh, don't worry. I brought your weapons along, too." She points over to an adjacent wall where the spear and sword was leaning on.

"Thank you," responds Aya. She tries again to sit up, but pain sends her back down on the bed.

"Aya!" chastised Aerith.

"Where am I?" wondered the teenage girl as she looks around her to find that she was in a very unfamiliar room.

"This is Merlin's house," answers Aerith. "Also known as the base of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee."

"Who's Merlin?"

"Oh, you've seen him before. He's out helping Leon take care of some local Heartless."

Aya feels something fibrous and brings up a tuff of white hair in her hand. "I'm guessing this Merlin guy's pretty old."

Tifa giggles at the sound of the girl's subtle disgust at sleeping in a bed with hair other than her own strewn about.

"Sorry about that," apologizes Aerith embarrassingly. "We didn't really have time to clean it up."

"So I see," retorts Aya as she brushes as much hair off the bed as she could.

"I've casted Curaga on you so all you need now is to rest," said Aerith. "I ran into Fairy Godmother earlier and she said that you fainted in the Gummi Ship on the way over. Why didn't you tell me that you weren't supposed to be working so soon?"

"I didn't think it would affect me that much," asserted the teenage girl.

"Hey, you still haven't told us what happened to you in the basement area," spoke up Tifa.

"Maybe later," assures Aya. "I still feel a bit woozy."

"Well then, we'll let you get some rest," said Aerith. "If you need anything, just call for one of us, okay?"

"Okay," affirms Aya. She watches as the two young women leave the house. Once they were gone, she stares up at the ceiling above her as she tries to remember what had happened earlier. "Unknown to its protector…" She places a hand over her heart to feel it beat within her. "Was what he said true? Am I nothing more than a box to keep someone else's heart in?" She closes her eyes and tries to relax a bit more, but her mind was flooded with questions.

"What am I?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elsewhere in Hollow Bastion, a pink-haired man stood gazing out at the people working on the restoration effort. Behind him, a Door to Darkness portal opens up and Drulo steps through.

"And what do I owe to this unexpected visit?" asked the pink-haired man.

"Lumarai," exclaims the blonde. "Ais wants to get the Heart of Light now. Things aren't looking too good."

"Indeed they don't," asserts Lumarai, turning to face his fellow Heartless. "I don't sense Ais' existence anymore."

"What?" exclaims Drulo in surprise. "Did he use the portal to go elsewhere?"

"No, he was defeated. Rather pathetically, if I might add," responded the pink-haired man.

"But I was just with him," argues Drulo.

"You don't go up against the vessel of the Heart of Light and expect to get it so easily," affirms Lumarai. "Ais should've waited a little longer instead of become impatient."

"He had a reason," responded Drulo. "The Chasers are seeking out the Keyblade master. If they use him to sniff out the Heart of Light and Heart of Darkness and succeed, we're all done for."

"I see," understood Lumarai. "And what of _them_."

"_Them_?" repeated Drulo. "You mean those mirror clones?"

"I wouldn't say that, exactly," affirms the pink-haired man. "They are different from us in some ways."

"Enough to be different," asserts the blonde. "If I could, I'd go and destroy my copy-cat right now."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves now," warned Lumarai. "We're the only ones left now so we've got to be a bit more careful, especially around _them_. By the way, have you found the vessel of the Heart of Darkness?"

"No," answered Drulo. "It's…"

"Like finding a shadow in darkness," Lumarai finishes with a smile.

Drulo chokes on his words as he hears them come out of the scythe-wielding killer. He always hated how the man was able to read his mind like a book.

"Don't worry about it," assures Lumarai. "I think I have an idea where the Heart of Darkness may be."

"Really?" responded the blonde.

Lumarai crosses his arms before he continues. "Do you know a place called Twilight Town...?"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aya awakens some time later back in Merlin's house. She felt a little better, but instead of getting out of bed to look for the others, she decides to lie there and stare up at the ceiling to become deep in thought. She recalls the reports that she found in the castle's library and takes them out of her pockets to read them over again.

"Xehanort."

Aya's own memories didn't recall anyone by that name, but her heart recognized it very well. She wonders if she could find this Xehanort person and talk to him. From what she could see, this Xehanort used to live in Hollow Bastion's castle. She figures she probably ran into him while she was here and just didn't know what he looked like.

"Maybe I'll just ask Aerith and the others if they know a Xehanort," the teenage girl spoke aloud. She then glances over the other report and several words stuck out significantly. "Nobodies… Organization 13… Castle Oblivion…"

She tries to remember what she read in the Ansem Reports Sora had. "When the heart is lost, it turns into a Heartless and the body and soul left behind becomes a Nobody. If that's so, then where does the heart go when a Heartless is destroyed?"

She places a hand over her heart and recalls images of her friends. "Ale, Relena, Emyd; where did your hearts go? What's going to happen if I meet your guys' Nobodies?"

Tears began to well up in the girl's red-orange eyes. "I don't think I'll be able to destroy your Nobodies. It's too much for me."

Just then, the door of the house opened up and in stepped an old man wearing a blue robe and donning a floppy conical hat. A long white beard cascades down his face and almost reaches the end of his robe. Small spectacles enhance his eyes as a wand lay held in one hand.

"Oh, so we meet again, I see."

Aya quickly blinks away the tears and sits up on the bed. "Merlin?"

"That's right," affirms the man with a smile. "And, if memory serves me right, you must be Aya."

The teenage girl gives a nod of affirmation in response.

"Oh ho ho, so it is," chuckles Merlin. "Aerith asked me to check up on you so let's have a look here."

The comical wizard walks over to the girl and gives her a look-over. "Hmm, everything seems intact. You don't look as bad as Aerith said you were."

"I heal pretty quickly," Aya says with a meek smile.

"Most apparently so," agrees Merlin. "Well, if you're all right then I can give you the okay to work."

"Merlin?"

"Hmm?"

"Could you do me a favor?"

"What is it, Aya?"

Aya tries as best as she could to put her thoughts in the least embarrassing word as possible. "Could you tell Aerith and the others that I can't work?"

"I don't think I understand," responded the wizard.

Breathing a solemn sigh, Aya hops off the bed and hands Merlin the reports. "Give these to Leon for me. There's someplace I need to go to so I can't help everyone. I'm sorry."

"Oh, I'm sure Leon and the others will understand," assures Merlin with a smile as he accepts the reports. "I'll be sure to give them the message."

"Thanks a lot, Merlin," replies Aya as she began to head for the door.

"Uh, just one question," spoke up the wizard as Aya places her hand on the door handle. "Where _are_ you going?"

"Somewhere far," answers the girl. "I don't know if I'll be back or if I'll see any of you guys again."

"I'm sure we'll all meet again," exclaims Merlin optimistically.

Aya turns to face the man with a smile and nods in affirmation. "Yeah, we'll meet again. Goodbye, Merlin."

"Goodbye, Aya," the wizard bids farewell.

With that said, Aya opens the door and disappears behind it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** And the plot thickens. I bet a lot of you people are going to guess very wrong on who's the Heart of Darkness vessel.


	15. The Road Less Traveled 4

**The Road Less Traveled – Chapter 4**

Stepping out of the light portal, Aya found herself literally in the middle of nowhere. The single path that lay before her brought back memories of the other world she'd been to where she encountered the fire demon, Ifrit. Back in Hollow Bastion, Aya was careful to use the Door to Light in a place where she wouldn't be seen. Her new objectives required her to be as inconspicuous as possible and that meant no more making friends.

"My life just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?" the girl voices sarcastically.

Walking down the white powdered path, Aya hung her head as she thought about everyone she's met, friends old and new. Even though she had only been with her new friends briefly, she felt as if they were as longtime friends as her old ones. A new thought surfaces through the memories, causing Aya to take out Faith to look at it.

"It turned into a Keyblade," she spoke aloud as she recalled the fight with Ais. "Did it do it on its own, or did I have something to do with it?"

She stops for a moment and holds the sword out like the way Sora did with his Keyblade when he unlocked the door to her secret hiding place back in Traverse Town. As she figured, the weapon did absolutely nothing. With a sigh, she sheaths Faith and continues her way down the dusty path. She wonders if the same would happen to Ferocity so she takes out and holds her spear the same way as she walked along. Nothing happened to that weapon either. Another sigh and Ferocity went back to its place on her back.

After a while of walking, Aya began to think that this was one of those endless roads sorts of thing until she suddenly spots something up ahead. As she came closer, she could discern odd shapes that resembled itself as a wayward-looking castle.

"Looks like a reject from Wonderland," chuckles Aya humorously until she thought about what she just said and suddenly stops laughing. "Wait a minute. Since when did _I_ go to Wonderland?"

Raising a hand to her head, Aya looks down at the ground and ends up seeing a strange imprint in the soft dirt below. Curiosity strikes as the teenage girl kneels down on one leg to get a closer look. Sure enough there were three distinct sets of footprints on the ground. Judging by they way they looked, they weren't fresh nor were they too old. One set Aya recognized as webbed feet and she could only come up with specific guesses about the other two.

"Sora was here," she confirms as she stood up. She gazes over at the door that seemed to be the main entrance into the castle. "Is he still here? I wonder…"

She didn't take more than two steps before a male voice rang out.

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you."

A little startled by the sudden shout, Aya spins around to find herself face to face with another cloaked figure like the one she encountered before. Without a second thought, the teenage girl instantly whips out Ferocity and stands ready to fight. The cloaked man showed no signs of being intimidated as he takes off his hood and smiles.

"The name's Drulo," he introduces himself. "And just so you know, I'm not too happy about you destroying my comrade, Ais."

The man began pacing back and forth. Aya keeps her vigilant eyes on him just in case he decides to do a sudden surprise attack on her.

"Of course, as the vessel for the Heart of Light, I expect no less from you," continued Drulo. "Ais and myself, we are but mere Heartless, though the strongest ones since we've been able to retain our original forms more or less. Just like your friends."

Aya glares at him with more anger in her heart than before.

"Do you wish to know why your friends desired their own destruction over their own life?" Drulo let out a smile knowing that he's struck a chord in the girl with this question. As he expected, Aya flinched upon hearing it. "There's a higher power at work here that not even the Keyblade Master or the Nobodies of that Organization 13 know of. Your friends feared that power and stopped at nothing to destroy themselves, even if it was at the hands of their own dear friend."

"You're wrong; my friends aren't like that!" Aya argues back furiously.

"Believe me, my dear," responded Drulo. "If you knew of this higher power yourself, you'd do the same."

"Then what is this higher power?" demanded the teenage girl.

"It's not a matter of what but more of a matter of who," clarified the blonde-haired man. "He's the source of all Heartless if not _the_ original Heartless."

"Who is he?" demanded Aya.

"Now, now, if I told you that, it'd spoil the big surprise," replied Drulo humorously. "It's interesting, actually. I work for him yet at the same time I don't."

"You're not making any sense," growls the girl.

"I'm a Heartless, dear; I enjoy not making sense to people such as yourself," chuckled Drulo.

"Now you're just pissing me off!"

Pushing off the ground with all her might, Aya rushes at the man and swings her spear wide. Expecting to hit soft flesh, Aya's spear met with a hard surface instead. Looking up, she sees that the man had summoned up a strange-looking card with three triangular points on top.

"What the heck is that?" she exclaims in surprise.

"It's a card, obviously," replies Drulo as he pushes the girl back with his huge card. "You'd be swimming in a sea of cards like these once you enter Castle Oblivion. Now aren't you glad I stopped you?"

Taking out Faith, Aya slices through the huge card and dashes toward the man with both weapons in tow. Drulo merely grins as he summons up a slew of huge cards and send them flying at the girl as a horizontal cyclone of slicing and dicing weaponry. Wounds new and old littered Aya's body as many of the cards hit her dead on despite being able to deflect some of them with Faith and Ferocity. With a mighty battle cry, the girl casts a firestorm of a Firaga spell, engulfing the cards into its fury and slamming right into the Heartless man.

Drulo cries out as the Firaga spell hits him. With a flick of his hands, he summons a card beneath him and uses it to become airborne. Aya sees this and leaps up after the man holding Ferocity over her shoulder and Faith over her chest. Before she could get close to him, two cards float up behind the man and levitate over him to attack the girl in a series of fly-by aerial slashes. Wounded and weakened even further, Aya falls to the ground hard and her weapons separate from her hands.

Grasping victory, Drulo floats down to the ground on his card and begins stepping towards the fallen girl, despite being injured as well.

"Now just hold still and I'll make this quick," he says as a card floats up to his right side and aims its three-pointed top at Aya.

Aya tries desperately to get up, but she had been weakened by the fight too much. Looking further up on the ground, she spots Ferocity lying far away. Weakly, she tries to reach for it with her right arm but soon discovers that the weapon was way out of reach for her to grab it.

"Come on," she groans as she reaches out to her arm's limit to get the spear, but it was still too far out of reach.

Unknowingly, Aya's eyes suddenly became blue once again and Ferocity appears instantly in her hand in a flash of light. Without a second to spare, the girl immediately jumps to her feet and cuts through both Drulo and his card in the blink of an eye. The man had no time to react as the new Keyblade went right through him and his summoned card without warning. He turns to look at the girl standing behind him with a new Keyblade in hand.

"So it's true," he gasps. "You are…"

Before he could finish his sentence, his entire Heartless being dissipated into thin air. Aya couldn't believe what just happened. She plops down on the ground and looks at Ferocity, which had turn into a Keyblade version of itself.

"Why did Faith and Ferocity turn into Keyblades?" she wonders aloud. "And more importantly, _why_ can I use them as Keyblades?"

Without her knowing it, Aya's eyes reverted back to their original red-orange pigments as Ferocity went back to its spear form. Aya puts the spear back on her back and walks over to pick up Faith before finally entering Castle Oblivion.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** I bet some of you are wondering what happened to Lumarai. Well, for one thing, he most certainly isn't going to make any more appearances for the duration of _Road Less Traveled_, but that's not to say he won't be appearing in another story in the chronicles. :) You'll just have to wait and see.


	16. The Road Less Traveled 5

**The Road Less Traveled – Chapter 5**

The first thing Aya thought when she stepped foot into the castle was how utterly _boring_ it looked. The shade of white was everywhere, dominating the floor, the ceiling, the walls, and even the strange pieces of furniture placed in random locations.

"Hmm, can't imagine Sora wanting to go to a boring place like this," she exclaims thoughtfully. "Something must have lured him further into the castle. Guess I'll probably find out what pretty soon."

She takes a step forward but soon stops in her tracks as she senses another presence in the room with her. Quickly, she scans the area but finds nothing out of the ordinary.

"In order to gain what you seek, you must lose something in return."

Turning around, Aya found herself face to face with an individual covered in armor from head to toe. Two pieces of metal stood up along the sides of the helmet, making them look like geometric bat ears. The strange metallic color of dark bronze dominated the color scheme of the armor while blue and black lined its form.

"That is the law of this experimental environment," added the individual, who was apparently male from the sound of his voice.

"Experimental environment?" repeated Aya. "What kind of place is this?"

"A group of powerful Nobodies are performing experiments on memories right here in this very castle," answered the mysterious warrior. "I suggest you leave this place immediately, if you value your memories."

"Well, I can't exactly do that since a good friend of mine is in this castle somewhere," replies Aya, crossing her arms defiantly. "By the way, who are you?"

"All will be revealed in good time," assured the warrior. "You're taking a very big risk with your unstable memories."

"I have a good feeling that I won't have to worry too much about my memories around here," said Aya. "Can't really forget what's already forgotten."

"So you think," responded the warrior. "We shall see how strong that heart of yours is."

Before Aya could respond, the warrior fades away and disappears almost as instantly as he first appeared. Soon afterwards, a flash of light illuminated the white room even further and from its sparkling disappearance came a strange flat object floating down to the ground.

"Does he know about the Heart of Light?" she wonders as she goes over to investigate the object. She picks it up and realizes that it was a card just like the huge ones Drulo used to attack her earlier, only smaller and handheld. Not really sure what to do, Aya walks up the steps to the door and lifts the card up over her head. As she did so, the door opens up and the teenage girl was greeted with bright white light on the other side.

"Interesting," she exclaims, walking through the door and letting it shut behind her.

The teenage girl soon finds herself back in Hollow Bastion castle, although there was not a soul around besides her.

"What the…?" she wonders aloud. "How did I get back to Hollow Bastion?"

Just then, the warrior she met earlier appears before her once more, albeit his entire being was transparent.

"The card you hold brings your memories to life and recreates each of them in every room in this castle," explained the warrior.

"Okay…" responded Aya, not entirely sure what was going on. "So, this isn't the real Hollow Bastion?"

"Correct. This is merely a figment of your imagination, a projection of your memories," affirms the warrior.

"So does that mean that if I meet people from my memories here, they're not real either?"

"No. In fact, they won't even remember your name."

"How comforting."

"I warned you already," asserted the warrior. "From here on out, the memories you will encounter in these rooms will test your willpower and the strength of your heart."

"No problem," Aya asserts back, crossing her arms confidently. "I can take whatever this castle throws at me."

"You have much courage," commended the warrior. "Or could it be mere foolishness?"

With that, the warrior disappears once again, leaving Aya quite irritated by his words.

"What is it with these people and making me angry?" she mutters as she wanders through her memorial rendition of Hollow Bastion. She manages to make her way outside of Hollow Bastion castle and into the rocky world it inhabits. Disappointment shows itself through her frown as she did not encounter anyone from her memory of Hollow Bastion. "Looks like this Castle Oblivion is broken or something, 'cause this is a very bad projection of my memory."

She turns around to face the castle in all its cryptic glory, the huge Heartless icon smack dab in the middle of its façade.

_Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light. Everyone loved the light._

Without warning, the castle faded away, only to be replaced by several pillars of rock set up to look like spires of mountains.

"What…"

_Then people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts._

The sheer size took Aya by surprise as she steps away from the unusual rock formation. It was then that she looked around and found that she was in an entirely different place.

_The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts. It covered everything, and the world disappeared._

What were once wet blue rocks was now dull and desert-like, dust blowing through the lifeless environment.

_But small fragments of light survived...in the hearts of children._

_With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world._

_It's the world we live in now._

Aya's red-orange eyes widen as she felt deep within her heart a sense a familiarity with the surroundings that she stood in.

_But the true light sleeps, deep within the darkness. That's why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other._

_But someday, a door to the innermost darkness will open._

_And the true light will return._

Suddenly, the arid desert sky grew dark and starless. Aya looks up to see two figures standing on the highest of the rock pillars before her. She steps back in order to get a better view when the heel of her foot struck into something hard. Looking down, she was astonished to see that she was surrounded by a field of Keyblades all around her as if a great war took place on the land she stood on. As she scanned the area, Aya discovers two figures not far from where she was. One of them was holding onto the other, who appeared to be lifeless. Curiosity forces her to approach the unknown beings, but not without caution as Aya places a hand on the staff of Ferocity.

As she came close, she saw that one of the figures was an armor-clad blue-haired girl holding onto a blonde-headed boy with equal amounts of armor. Both seemed to bear the scars of battle with pieces of their armor missing from some parts of their bodies. Aya noticed that the boy was frozen stiff, most likely from a strong ice attack. Her first thought was a powerful version of Blizzaga, but she wasn't too sure about her assumption.

Even though Aya was standing close enough to the girl to nudge her with her foot, the blue-haired warrior didn't seem to notice her at all. Without warning, the blue-haired girl looks up towards the sky. Aya looks up to where the girl was looking and she watches as something bright and blue shot up into the sky from the top of the tallest pillar and crashed through the dark grey clouds up above. With a rumbling roar, the clouds separated to reveal a gargantuan blue heart etched right into the sky.

"Sora?" Aya exclaims all of a sudden. She does a double-take and tries to figure out why his name came up in her mind upon seeing the huge heart. She places a hand over her heart, which seemed to be resonating with the heart in the sky. Without a second thought, Aya dashes past the two armored warriors and jumps up onto the rocky platforms to reach the tallest pillar.

Once at the top, the teenage girl found herself facing an old bald man whose outfit was strikingly similar to, if not the same as, the man she saw in her flashback on the Gummi Ship a while back. Standing beside him was an individual who seemed to be much younger than the old man judging by the straight stature of the person's build. The masked individual wielded a Keyblade and appeared to look at the girl intently. Aya didn't say a word as she immediately draws out Ferocity. Her eyes unknowingly change to blue as Ferocity morphed into its Keyblade form.

The old man didn't seem intimidated in the least bit as he silently orders the masked Keyblade-wielder to attack. Aya easily blocked the wielder's first attack but after that was a blur of slashes and strikes. The girl could do nothing but go on the defensive, just barely matching the wielder's attacks in terms of speed. It was not long before the wielder managed to push Aya to the edge of the mesa. With one last slash, the girl was sent falling over the edge. Aya yells out as everything around her suddenly went white and a bright light engulfs her entirely.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** I always thought there was something peculiar about Hollow Bastion… If you actually look up the words, hollow means "a void; an emptiness" and bastion means "fortress" or "defensive stronghold." A fortress of emptiness… Doesn't that remind you of the World That Never Was for some reason? Very interesting indeed.


	17. The Road Less Traveled 6

**The Road Less Traveled – Chapter 6**

_Cold…_

_So… cold…_

_Where… am I?_

Groaning, Aya blinks herself back to consciousness as the bright whiteness of the castle floor nearly blinds her. A few inches away from her hand lay Ferocity, which had reverted back to its spear form. Slowly and steadily, Aya pushes herself off the ground and sits up on her knees to survey her surroundings. The room she was in looked just like the one she was in before, although the random pieces of furniture were in different places, making her conclude that she was indeed in another room of the castle.

"So, you made it through after all."

Aya instantly jumped to her feet and grabs the handle of her ninja sword behind her ready. Her reaction left no time to grab the spear so she would have to contend with using just her sword. Looking around alertly, the girl could not find the source of the voice.

"Mind telling me what you're up to?" she demanded fiercely.

As a response, the armored warrior she encountered after entering the castle appeared transparently before her once again.

"Welcome to the second floor," said the man. "The comrades you seek are currently on the eighth floor and climbing ever higher. You'd better hurry if you wish to catch up with them."

"Did _you_ lure them here?" growled Aya, drawing out her ninja sword and holding it offensively, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

"I've already told you," began the warrior. "This castle is owned by the powerful Nobodies I spoke of before. Lucky for you, they're much too busy bothering with your comrades and the other keyblade wielder to take notice of your presence."

"Other keyblade wielder?" repeated Aya as the image of the masked keyblade wielder appeared in her mind. At the same time, the memory of her encounter with Riku pops up beside it.

_No, it can't be the same person…_

_I sensed darkness in Riku, but it wasn't as intense as the wielder… _

_Wait, that time I met Riku… He must have already passed by here already by then…_

"With the door to light come many risks," said the warrior. "Using it to travel between worlds can cause you to travel through time itself. The same risks come with the door to darkness. Only through experience can one learn to travel along a single timeline using either door."

"Well that sure explains why a lot of things don't make sense," said Aya. "If that's the case, I hope I didn't mess up any timelines while traveling around."

Manipulating her hand, Aya manages to turn her sword around so that its bladed tip pointed towards the warrior. "So then, who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I've been following you for some time now," answered the warrior. "I believe you have what it takes to become a member of our ranks, but I wish to test the strength of your heart and the light within it before I will reveal more about myself and my comrades. Though this place is in the possession of the enemy, it will prove to be a suitable testing ground for you."

"I'm not interested in joining up with someone who doesn't say 'hello' and introduces himself upon the first meeting," affirmed Aya, still holding her sword up at the warrior.

"Forgive me, but it is a necessary precaution," explained the warrior. "You must understand. The darkness can seep into the hearts of anyone. We don't know who to trust because of that. That is why a test such as this is vital for our ranks to only include those with the purest of hearts."

"I don't quite trust you either," asserts Aya. "Look, I'm only here to help my friends and that's what I intend to do. If you decide to get in the way then you're an enemy just like the Heartless I fight."

"I'd much appreciate it if you do not group my comrades and I with the insatiable Heartless," said the warrior, who seemed flustered by Aya's statement. "It is because of the darkness of this castle that I cannot appear before you in person and must suffice with just projecting myself magically like this. If you wish, I will bother you no longer and leave you to your doings. But… please, at least consider joining me. I await your answer outside the castle."

With those final words, the mysterious armored warrior disappears for perhaps the last time until Aya leaves the castle. The girl felt relieved yet uncertain as the warrior's offer remained in her mind. Sighing indecisively, she sheaths her sword and walks over to pick up her spear and set it behind her onto her spear holder. She reaches into her pocket to pull out the card and proceeds to walk over to the door when a thought pops up in her mind.

"I wonder…"

Taking the card and putting it back into the pocket of her jeans, Aya steps forward and pushes the white doors open.

* * *

Aya blinks once.

Then twice.

"This… is weird..."

On the other side of the door, she saw a room that was almost exactly like the one she had just left. White all around and some furnishings scattered about. Letting the doors close behind her, Aya stood where she was, scratching her head in confusion.

"So if I don't use a card, I just end up in another room clone?" she exclaims in disappointment. "Then again, it's not like the people in this place is exactly creative with its interior decorating."

She takes a few steps deeper into the room before a sinister voice rang out.

"Stay right where you are or I'll zap the living daylight out of you."

Slowly and steadily, Aya turns her head towards the source of the voice and her eyes widen in surprise.

"R… Relena…?"

The blonde-haired woman standing before her flinches at the sound of the name, but keeps the yellow kunais in her hands ready to throw.

"Who… are you?" demanded the woman as she creases her eyes.

"Aya Yurika," responds Aya. "Unless… that's not a name you're familiar with any longer."

"I've never known anyone by that name," sneered the woman. "Now state your business or I'll destroy you right where you stand."

"Calm down, Larxene, she's harmless."

Out of a door of darkness came a young man with strikingly red hair shaped into spikes. He looks over at the blonde woman and then to Aya.

"Isn't that right, Aya?" he exclaims with a nonchalant demeanor.

"Ale…?" utters Aya softly.

"It's Axel now," affirmed the young man. "You'd best keep that in mind from now on."

"You know this wench?" scoffs Larxene, relaxing her arms a little but still holding onto her kunais.

"Why—" began Aya.

"Get out of here, NOW," Axel commands abruptly. "You shouldn't be here. At all."

"What do you mean?" Aya could feel that there was more to his words than what was on the surface.

"That last card you're holding onto will explain everything," he clarifies, never letting any emotion show through his stoic face. "And if you're wondering, yes, I know all about my Heartless."

Both Aya and Larxene's eyes went wide open upon hearing that.

"Is that why I don't feel a desires to kill this girl?" demands Larxene. She turns to glare at Aya. "You killed my Heartless?"

Aya instinctively places a hand on her ninja sword. "I don't understand."

"Look, if you linger around here any longer, I'll be forced to destroy you," said Axel, his tone getting increasingly angrier. "Now get out of here."

Hesitantly, Aya backs away from the two individuals towards the stairs that Axel had come down from. Her heart wanted her to stay and try to talk some sense into these people, but her mind told her that it was a lost cause. With one last look at the two Aya quickly turns around and races up the stairs, all while fighting the urge to cry which threatened to burn through her chest.

* * *

**A/N:** Yes, I know that Axel's real name has already been revealed in the recent Birth By Sleep trailer. For the sake of consistency, I'm going by what I originally called him before the reveal and that's that. :p


End file.
